


A Different Kind of Friendship Bracelet

by andthentheres_you



Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: 'i hate you stop being hot', Alec and Magnus try to go 24 hours without killing each other, Alec is either flustered or angry, Alec is very gay, Alternate Universe - Human, Developing Relationship, Emetophobia, Enemies to Lovers, Handcuffed Together, Humor, Hungover!Alec, M/M, Magnus enjoys both, Not in a kinky way, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sexual Tension, Slow Build, mentions of drinking, there is no vomiting but nausea is mentioned in the first couple of chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-07-15 01:45:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 31,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7200581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andthentheres_you/pseuds/andthentheres_you
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Of all the people to end up handcuffed to, why did it have to be Magnus? Waking up mysteriously attached to anyone wasn’t exactly ideal, but Alec would have at least preferred it if the person were someone he could actually tolerate."</p><p>Waking up handcuffed to his sworn enemy isn't something Alec had ever made plans to do. Magnus is not over the moon about the situation, either. Due to unfortunate developments, the pair are forced to spend 24 hours handcuffed together. Alec needs to focus on getting out, or else he may accidentally let himself think about how attractive his enemy is. Magnus does not make it easy for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hour Zero: Part One

**Author's Note:**

> Well, here goes. This is my second ever fic and first multi-chapter fic so pls go easy on me. I'm expecting this to be around 16 chapters if all goes to plan. After the first two chapters, each chapter will begin to resemble one hour Alec and Magnus spend handcuffed together (skipping hours during sleeping, of course... look forward to that). This should be interesting.

The first thing Alec registered as he slowly gained consciousness was a painful pressure in his skull that he expected was not too dissimilar to someone tightening a vice around his head. The second thing Alec registered was the jolt of nausea. He attempted to open his eyes, clamping them shut immediately to avoid the bright daylight flooding through the long, flowing curtains. Letting out a soft groan that was harsh on his own ears, he slowly lifted one of his hands and rubbed his head gently in the hopes to sooth the pounding. It was at this moment that he registered the unusual weight of his arm. The feeling of some sort of solid band around his wrist. Alec frowned, trying to ignore the sharp sting of pain as he squinted his eyes open once more. His raised arm came into focus, and Alec noticed the gleaming steel circling his wrist. His eyes followed the silver chain attached to the band, widening as he saw what was on the other end. Another hand, darker than his own, hanging loosely in a band identical to the one encompassing Alec’s wrist. He was handcuffed to someone. He dropped his arm back down as he realised he recognised that skin tone. Fuck.

Alec’s eyes drifted up the person’s arm towards their elbow, his suspicions of the person’s identity enforced as he took in the view of a plum velvet shirt, and confirmed when he reached their sleeping face. Of all the people to end up handcuffed to, why did it have to be Magnus? Waking up mysteriously attached to anyone wasn’t exactly ideal, but Alec would have at least preferred it if the person were someone he could actually tolerate.

Alec’s thoughts were interrupted by a light chuckle from across the room. It was then that Alec realised he had barely taken notice of what room he was actually in. He had been preoccupied with his awful hangover and realising he was attached to someone he hated. Wait… hangover. Magnus’ party. That his siblings and friends had forced him to attend. Right.

Finally, Alec looked towards the source of the chuckle, his eyes scanning the mess that was Magnus’ living room before landing on Jace’s smug grin.

“Morning,” Jace greeted Alec from the floor. He was lying on his side, facing his brother, his blond head resting on his arm. Alec wouldn’t have been surprised if the next line out of Jace’s mouth was ‘draw me like one of your French girls’. “Good night?”

Alec didn’t bother answering his question, trying to ignore how his headache strengthened with each word Jace said. He had a question of his own. “What’s this?” He asked coldly, lifting his arm slightly as a gesture to what he meant. 

“That’s an arm. You have two of them.” The smirk tugging the corners of Jace’s mouth upwards was barely hidden, a tell-tale sign that he’d been involved with whatever events had led to the handcuffs making an appearance.

“You know what I mean, Jace,” Alec snapped, immediately regretting it when his head throbbed in protest. “Why am I handcuffed to Magnus Bane?” He continued, lowering his voice for his own benefit.

“I don’t appreciate that tone,” Jace chuckled as he sat up on the wooden floor, his eyebrows raised slightly in amusement. “It wasn’t my idea.”

Alec was well aware that when he or his friends found themselves in these sorts of situations, which there were unfortunately a lot of, his brother was usually the culprit. He opened his mouth to say exactly that, but was cut off by someone emerging from the direction of the bathroom.

“Morning, big bro,” Isabelle sang loudly, heels clicking on the floor as she walked towards her siblings. Alec groaned softly at the increased volume of the environment, closing his eyes as he rested his head back on the leather couch cushion. “It seems you’re a bit tied up,” he heard Izzy continue as her voice moved in front of him. He assumed she was sitting down next to Jace. He also assumed that since there was absolutely no hint of surprise at Alec’s situation in her voice, the idea has been hers. It was always Jace… unless it was Izzy. 

“Get me out of these,” Alec mumbled, any form of greeting from him completely flying out the window. If he hadn’t been feeling like death incarnate, by now he would be attempting to tug himself free from the grip of the silver ring.

Izzy cooed. “But you two are finally sitting together without trying to rip each other’s heads off,” She sounded so upbeat and cheerful, as if she hadn’t spent all night drinking. 

“I expect that’s because one of them is still unconscious,” Jace pointed out, and Alec could _hear_ his smirk. He was surprised that Magnus had managed to stay asleep amongst this deafening madness. 

“Why did you do this, Isabelle?” Alec whined, lifting his head up to open his eyes and look towards his sister. “What did I ever do to you?”

Izzy smiled, her immaculate crimson lipstick contrasting with her pearly white teeth. “Well, when your brother and one of your best friends start bringing everyone down by moaning about each other the entire night, it’s only natural to want to solve the problem. If you ask me, it’s interesting how much you talk about each other all the time.”

Alec tried to ignore her last statement and narrowed his eyes, his brow furrowed. “How is this solving anything?”

“Communication, _hermano,_ ” Izzy grinned. Alec waited for clarification, but received nothing. Fortunately (or unfortunately, since Alec would have still loved for everyone to stop hurting his ears), Jace took over in vocalising whatever ridiculous explanation the pair had.

“Izzy thought that if you two were forced to spend some time together, you could sort out whatever problems you have,” Jace said with a small shrug. “Think of it as an intervention.” 

“Magnus and I don’t like each other,” Alec grumbled. “He’s arrogant and conceited. I don’t understand why you care so much.”

“You’ve never given yourselves a chance to get to know one another,” Izzy countered. “You’ve been at each other’s throats, pretty much since you first met and none of us know why.”

“I- he- he’s just…” Alec trailed off, not exactly sure what he had been going to say. 

“Hm,” was all his sister said in response.

Alec rolled his eyes hard, his line of vision landing on the handcuffs once again. “Whatever. Where did you even get- actually, I don’t want to know.” He assumed they were Magnus’, since the party had taken place in his apartment. Alec didn’t want to think about the reasons why Magnus would own a pair of handcuffs. They weren’t the flimsy sort bought off cheap, tacky websites. They were the real deal; sturdy, unyielding steel with a robust chain. Despite not wanting to consider why Magnus would own these, Alec couldn’t help but let his mind wander… before he caught himself and cursed inwardly. Do not think about that.

When Alec finally moved his attention back to his siblings, Izzy was smirking at him. “In the end, it was pretty easy to get the handcuffs on. You were both too drunk to notice. We just didn’t expect you to pass out a few minutes later. Kind of defeated the aim.

“Whatever, just get them off. Who has the key?” Alec asked, his gaze moving between his brother and sister. He frowned as they exchanged a look. “What?”

“About the key,” Jace started hesitantly as he leaned back on his arms. “We’ve misplaced it.” 

“What?” Alec repeated, his voice harsher this time. “You can’t be serious.” 

“We must have dropped it somewhere last night,” Izzy said, her large dark eyes scanning the room quickly. “We looked for it before you woke up. Clary and Simon helped, but they left to go to Simon’s band practice. We’ll look again later once we’ve cleaned up.”

Alec’s mouth gaped open slightly. Later? He was supposed to stay like this all day?

Jace let out a huff of laughter at the look on Alec’s face. “Come on, it won’t take-“

“ _What_ is going on?” came Magnus’ voice from the right of Alec, his tone blasé despite the question. None of the Lightwood siblings had even realised he was awake. “I need beauty sleep to look this good, which I can’t get if I’m woken by the three of you deciding to have a meeting less than a foot away from me.”

Alec rolled his eyes for the second time since he’d woken up, wondering in the back of his mind what his current record was for the most eye-rolls in ten minutes. The last thing he needed right now was for Magnus to join in the conversation. His headache was bad enough as it was. Magnus hadn’t even seemed to have noticed the handcuffs yet.

“Sorry for waking you, Magnus,” Izzy apologised, smiling softly. “How are you?”

“Wonderful, as always, dear,” Magnus responded. He smiled at the two youngest Lightwoods, having completely ignored Alec up to this point. Alec held back a groan. Was he the only one suffering from the previous night? This wasn’t fair.

Magnus shifted on the couch, looking around the messy apartment. Bottles and cans littered the floor and one of the chairs was tipped over in the corner, the velvet cushions strewn across the surrounding area. “Was a good night, wasn’t it?” Magnus hummed, a hint of amusement in his tone. He moved to stand up, but paused as he felt cold metal against his wrist. Alec watched the other man’s gaze slowly drop to the handcuffs, getting slightly distracted by the way the remnants of the glitter around Magnus’ eyes sparkled in the sunlight.

“Would anyone care to explain this?” Magnus asked slowly. “Why am I handcuffed to Grumpy Cat? Are these mine?”

Alec stopped himself from rolling his eyes once again at the ‘grumpy cat’ comment. Maybe he wouldn’t be so grumpy around Magnus if Magnus wasn’t so insufferable.

“We found them,” Izzy smiled, a mischievous glint in her eye. The exact location of where she found the handcuffs was still unknown to Alec. Her facial expression gave him a pretty strong hunch.

“That doesn’t begin to explain why they are currently in use,” Magnus raised an eyebrow, looking towards Alec. “Did you do this? I didn’t know you were so desperate to be close to me,” He teased, a shameless smirk on his face.

Alec scoffed, trying not to acknowledge the slight heat rising up his neck. Now would have usually been the time he’d get up and walk out of the room, but unfortunately the handcuffs made that impossible. He settled for a reply of “you wish”, catching Jace’s eye and glaring in response to the blond’s snicker.

“Last night, Iz and I thought it would be nice for you two to sort out your differences,” Jace explained, his gaze moving to Magnus. “But we needed a way to make sure the two of you wouldn’t run away from each other, so…”

“And now they’ve lost the key, _supposedly,_ ” Alec continued, glowering at his siblings.

Jace mocked a shocked look, although Alec could still see that hint of smugness that hadn’t left his brother’s face since the conversation began. “Hey, do you think we’d just leave you two like that if we had the key?”

Alec answered him with another glare, not bothering to vocalise his confirmation of ‘yes, that is exactly what I think’.

“Well, this is marvellous,” Magnus exclaimed, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Alec broke his eye contact with Jace, looking to Magnus as he continued to speak. “Being tied to Mr. Scrooge here is exactly what I had planned for my day.”

Alec raised his eyebrows slightly. “I’m sorry if this disrupts your hours of gazing at yourself in a mirror. This may surprise you, but I’m not exactly thrilled with being indefinitely trapped in a metal ring.”

“I am surprised. Many people would feel privileged to enter my ring,” Magnus responded without missing a beat, the teasing tone back in his voice.

Alec barely heard Jace’s obnoxious snort and Isabelle’s tinkle of a giggle. He was too busy fighting back a swift, overwhelming blush, begging to every deity he could think of that it was not visible to everyone in the room. Too busy to notice that Magnus was looking right at him, and that dark brown eyes had met his own hazel ones. Alec’s gaze shot to the polished floor, as if Magnus’ eyes had scorched his own.

“I- a-anyway…” Alec started, cursing himself for the stutter. “Don’t you have tools… or something? So we can break the cuffs,” he clarified, not daring to meet anyone’s eyes. What the hell was going on with him?

“Do I _look_ like the sort of man who would own a toolbox?” Magnus asked. Alec could tell the other man was still looking at him, and he wished Magnus would lose the smugness from his voice.

“Don’t worry, big brother. We’ll find the key,” Izzy said, her words full of assurance as she stood up gracefully. “We’ll start looking now. Come on, Jace.” She smiled her brilliant smile at her blond brother, tugging him off the floor.

As Alec’s siblings began tidying up the shambles and mayhem that was Magnus’ living room, the eldest Lightwood focused every bit of energy his hungover mind could muster on reminding himself of all the reasons he hated Magnus Bane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chat with me on [tumblr](http://immortalexander.tumblr.com)! I need friends.
> 
>  
> 
> One more thing. If it weren't for my [beta](http://alberto-rosendbae.tumblr.com), this fic probably wouldn't even be going up. She is not only checking my writing, she is motivating me so much and is helping me when I get stuck. Thank you, Georgia, you're a babe.


	2. Hour Zero: Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec and Magnus stay handcuffed together. There are further unfortunate events.

Alec Lightwood had stumbled across Magnus Bane about three months prior. Literally. 

It had been a cold Sunday morning. Alec had gotten up at around 7 o’clock to take a trip to the gym, trying to ignore the chill that took over his body as he reluctantly removed himself from under his warm duvet. The early time of year meant the sun was wouldn’t be making an appearance for another hour or so, causing Alec to feel like he was awake a lot earlier than he was. 

Alec crossed the dark, almost silent living room. The only sound his ears registered were the birds chirping their morning greetings. He immediately checked the coat rack for Isabelle’s jacket, letting out a small sigh of relief when he spotted it. His sister had informed him that she’d be attending a party with a few friends, and with it being so early in the morning, he had not wanted to knock on Izzy’s door in case he woke her. The confirmation of her leather coat was enough to ensure she’d arrived home safely.

As Alec strolled across the room to the door, he spotted a small flash out of the corner of his eye and looked to the source. The bright gleam from a street lamp outside had reflected off the screen of Alec’s phone, which was sitting on the glass coffee table. He must have left it there the previous night, having been too wrapped up in the emotions caused by the chapter of the book he’d been intent on finishing. He walked towards the phone, figuring it’d probably be a good idea to take it with him to the gym. He didn’t receive many calls, especially so early on a Sunday morning, however he wanted to make sure his family could reach him if they needed to.

Of all the things to happen on the short, usually uneventful journey to pick his phone up from the coffee table, Alec did not expect to walk around the front of the couch… and trip over something. He exclaimed slightly in shock as he tumbled onto the couch, his shock turning to horror when he looked down to the floor and realised what he’d tripped over had been a body. An unfamiliar body.

Alec stared down at the stranger from where he had landed on the couch, not sure what to do. It was still dark, meaning Alec couldn’t make out the features of whoever it was who had turned his living room floor into a bed. Were they an intruder? Were they someone’s friend? Living with Jace and Isabelle meant it wasn’t the first time someone unknown had turned up in their house after a night out, but they usually weren’t lying on the floor, essentially under the table. 

Clearing his throat and being sure to stay on guard, Alec nudged the person’s ankle with his foot. “Who the hell are you?” he asked, hoping it was loud enough to wake them up.

The stranger stirred and Alec heaved himself off the couch, standing above them. He watched as the stranger groaned softly, rolling over slowly to face the ceiling. Alec was met with the face of a man he’d never seen before, what little light there was in the room reflecting off the small specks of glitter stuck to the man’s cheeks. What looked like a few shades of blue eyeshadow were blended over his eyelids, and some of the colour had taken a short journey, now smudged messily across his temples. The pigments contrasted pleasantly with the man’s tanned skin tone, and Alec wished he himself had the capability to be such a hot mess. He swallowed, pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind as he spoke again.

“Who are you?” he repeated louder, and finally he got a response from the barely conscious man. 

The stranger’s eyes flickered opened slowly, revealing dark brown, practically black irises. He looked up at Alec for a few moments, not seeming at all shocked at the sight of someone standing over him. 

“Hello,” the mystery man murmured, and Alec wondered how that voice could sound so perfectly silky despite the owner of it having just woken up. “Who are you?”

“I asked first,” Alec stated, starting to doubt whether the man would ever answer his question.

The man moved to sit up, and Alec moved backwards a little so that the stranger wouldn’t come face to… well, face to crotch. “I’m Magnus,” the stranger answered, looking up at Alec. “One beautiful, charming resident of this house allowed me sleep here last night. She looked a lot like you.”

Alec closed his eyes momentarily. Izzy. Of course.

When he opened them again, Magnus was still looking at him. Alec thought he could see a small smile on the man’s face, although it may have been a trick of the light. It took all of Alec’s focus not to get distracted by the way the shadows lined the sharp angles Magnus’ face.

“I-Isabelle,” Alec blurted out after a second. Magnus looked slightly confused at his sudden outburst of the name. “My sister,” Alec clarified. “I’m her brother. Alec.”

Magnus definitely smiled this time, moving elegantly to sit up on the couch. “Nice to meet you, Alec.” 

“Yeah. You too,” Alec replied, not sure how else to respond. Was it really nice to find a stranger asleep on your living room floor? Even if they were attractive. “I’m guessing my sister offered you the couch to sleep on, and not the floor.”

Magnus chuckled softly. “That does make more sense, doesn’t it? Yes, we were at a party together last night and I lost the keys to my apartment. Luckily, she was sweet enough to offer me a place to sleep. If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet you,” He practically purred, his tone ridiculously flirty.

Alec’s mind drew a blank as he tried to think of how to respond. He was torn. On one hand, Magnus was very… aesthetically pleasing, and Alec felt somehow smug that the man had been flirting with him. That didn’t usually happen. But on the other hand, Alec was in very real danger of doing or saying something he’d regret.

The second hand overpowered the first, and Alec’s eyes moved to his phone. “Right,” He choked out, quickly grabbing it off the table. “Gotta go.” 

Alec quickly made his way to the door, thankfully remembering to pick up his gym kit, and left without a backwards glance.

_____

It seemed that Isabelle had gotten to know Magnus well, having come out of her room shortly after Alec had left for the gym. When Alec arrived home, Magnus was still perched on the couch, laughing with Izzy. Alec said a short hello to his sister before retreating to his room, avoiding Magnus’ eyes.

Over the next week, Magnus started coming over to the house to hang out with Izzy, and the two grew close quickly. Alec couldn’t help but avoid Magnus’ eyes whenever he saw him, ignoring the slight jump in his chest the few times they made eye contact. He barely spoke to Magnus, except for a few of short “hi”s and a small smile or two. The pair engaged in small talk a couple of times, but Alec kept his guard up, always retreating quickly when he found himself blushing at Magnus’ comments, or stuttering over his own words, or wondering how soft Magnus’ lips would feel against his own. However, there was still a small part of Alec that wished Magnus would try to get closer to him.

This small part of Alec was short-lived. After a while, Magnus seemed to show his true colours. He stopped showing interest in Alec completely. Despite never speaking to the eldest Lightwood sibling, each time Alec saw him, Magnus seemed to be talking. Most of the time it was to Izzy, sometimes over the phone to someone, and sometimes even to Jace. In fact, Magnus spoke to everyone except him. It bothered Alec more than he cared to admit. But at the back of his mind, he felt a sense of annoyance, unable to fight the hunch whispering to him that now Magnus had failed to get into Alec’s pants, Magnus didn’t see any point in trying to interact with him. Like all Alec was good for was a quick fuck, but now that was off the cards, Magnus would move onto someone who’d give him what he wanted without a second thought.

One afternoon, he’d tried saying hello to Magnus, but was met with cold silence. Later that same day, he’d heard Magnus mention him on the phone, fully aware Alec was in earshot, referring to him as Izzy’s “grumpy, reclusive brother”. Alec had clenched his jaw and pretended not to hear it, but left the room hurriedly. What, just because Alec wasn’t constantly chatting and didn’t like being the centre of attention, he wasn’t worthy of respect? He wasn’t worthy of knowing the great, almighty, egotistical Magnus Bane.

Well, at least he knew where he stood.

_____

“You’ve been looking in that spot for the past ten minutes,” Alec sighed, in response to Jace repeatedly telling them the key for the handcuffs was nowhere to be found. 

Jace and Isabelle had tidied most of the apartment, and had been searching for the key for about a quarter of an hour. Alec had strongly considered offering to help, but searching for the key while having someone attached to his wrist would have been difficult enough if he was feeling fine, never mind with the pounding headache and nausea he continued to endure. The last thing he needed was he and Magnus tumbling over each other, or Magnus criticising him for not looking hard enough. Therefore, he remained sitting on the couch next to him, sipping slowly from the glass of cold water Izzy had brought him to aid his hangover. By some sort of miracle, his siblings hadn’t locked the cuff too tight around his wrist, and Alec was thankful he wasn’t feeling pain from the steel. He occasionally glanced down at the space between Magnus’ hand and his own, making sure not to let them touch. Magnus was carefully inspecting his sparkly purple nails on his free hand, seeming incredibly bored with the whole ordeal. Alec couldn’t blame him.

“If I’m gonna look, I might as well do it properly.” Jace shrugged and stood up, finally moving away from the bookcase he’d been scrutinising for what felt like an eternity to Alec. “Clary’s perceptive. She might be able to find it.”

Alec rolled his eyes at the mention of the small redhead. It wasn’t that he didn’t like her, but she and Jace were in the stage of their relationship where they never stopped talking about each other. Alec thought about making a tally chart to mark down how many times a day they mentioned each other’s names. He would probably need more than one sheet of paper to fit all the marks on.

“Clary is busy,” Izzy pointed out, glancing at Jace from where she was kneeling next to the marble statue at the other side of the room. “Besides, we can do this ourselves.”

“You can make out with your girlfriend later,” Alec assured him as he raised the glass of water to his lips again, his tone a little harsher than he intended.

Jace shot him a dark look, pulling back a corner of the patterned purple rug which was spread across the floor below the large window. “That’s not what I meant, Alec,” he said, although Alec had noticed his expression. Jace had been his brother for over half his life. He knew that after his comment about Clary, if Jace hadn’t been thinking about kissing her before, he certainly was now.

“Really?” Alec droned sarcastically, balancing his almost empty glass on the leather arm of the couch.

Magnus watched the glass wobble dangerously as Alec placed it down, his sharp gaze moving to Alec after a moment. “I do hope you’re aware, if that smashes, you will be the one cleaning it up.”

Alec barely glanced at Magnus for half a second before looking away, focusing his attention on the view outside and ignoring the way it woke the dull pain behind his eyes. “Yeah, well. You’ll have to come with me, won’t you?” he murmured, raising his cuffed hand slightly as a gesture and moving his gaze to Magnus, holding back a smirk at the annoyed look on the other man’s face as his own hand was lifted with it.

Any hint of a smirk instantly disappeared when Alec laid his hand back on the couch, and his pale fingers accidentally drifted over Magnus’ olive ones. The moment Alec felt the touch, he yanked his hand away so fast that he wouldn’t be surprised if he’d broken the light-speed barrier. Unfortunately, during his temporary mental shut-down, he’d somehow forgotten about Magnus’ hand connected to his own. Alec looked down in alarm as he saw that not only was his own hand in his lap, but Magnus’ hand was now resting against his thigh. 

Alec suddenly felt like he was in an oven, and he knew the blush rising up his cheeks would be observed by Magnus. He hoped to God his siblings weren’t paying attention. He cleared his throat in panic, thankfully managing not to choke, and aimed to casually moved his and Magnus’ hands back to their original position on the couch. He didn’t dare look in the Magnus' direction, already able to work out that Magnus was laughing at him. Fucking asshole. Alec occupied himself with glancing at his siblings, as nonchalantly as possible, holding back a sigh of relief when their heads were still turned away.

After a couple of awkward, agonising minutes, the sound of Jace’s text alert filled the room and shot through Alec’s already aching head. Jace stood up and retrieved his phone from his pocket, reading the text. “Clary needs me.”

Alec’s head turned sharply to look at Jace, promptly regretting it as his head throbbed in protest. “What?”

“Simon tripped over a cable from the amp and fell into the drum kit. Sprained his ankle. Or broke it,” Jace read off the screen. “Clary isn’t sure. They want me to drive them to the hospital. Apparently Luke can't get away from work.”

“Of course Lewis would manage to do that,” Alec mumbled. He’d always found Clary’s best friend inexplicably annoying, and it seemed that wasn’t going to end any time soon. He’d just made Alec’s life ten times harder without actually being present. Alec was almost impressed.

“Is he okay?” Isabelle’s worried voice came from where she was crouched by a bookcase. 

“Is the drum kit okay?” Magnus asked.

Jace nodded to Izzy, ignoring Magnus. “He’s fine. But he can’t walk. Will you be okay searching on your own, Iz?” he asked, glancing up from his phone momentarily to look at his sister.

“Of course,” Isabelle confirmed, her face breaking out into a bright smile as she laughed at the look on Alec’s face. “Have faith in me, big brother. I can find the key by myself.”

Alec knew there would be no point in arguing with Jace. Clary and Simon genuinely needed his help. And anyway, the day Jace didn’t sprint off to help Clary with even tying her shoelace would be the day the world ended. And right now, the world ending didn’t seem so bad to Alec.

And with that, Jace said a quick goodbye and left the apartment, the slam of the door thundering through Alec’s brain. Alec made a mental note to kill his brother next time he saw him. Slowly and painfully.

The room became quiet then, the only sounds Alec could hear being the rush of cars passing outside, and the rustling and shifting of Magnus’ many possessions as Izzy continued to search for the key. Alec would have described the situation as ‘calm’, if he hadn’t been feeling anything but calm. On the contrary, he was wishing with all his heart that the couch would just swallow him up, never to be seen again. He still couldn’t bring himself to look anywhere near Magnus, and he wished Magnus didn’t have such a ridiculous effect on him. Alec hated himself for it, but he hated Magnus more. He shot a nearly desperate glance at the door, wishing Jace had stayed. It would take Izzy twice as long to find the key than if he’d remained at the apartment.

“Don’t be distraught, Grumpy Cat,” Alec heard Magnus say teasingly, and he clenched his teeth at the nickname that Magnus had seemed to decide was here to stay. “Your darling brother will be back soon. Try not to pine too intensely."

Alec almost growled, turning to face him as he was struck with a confidence that he couldn’t trace back to a source. “I do not pine for anyone. Shut the fuck up.”

“Make me,” Magnus answered without delay, leaning in and narrowing his eyes at Alec as they locked fierce gazes.

Alec fought back the vigorous urge to break eye contact. He wouldn’t let Magnus have the final say again. “You know, it’s interesting that you don’t think I could.”

“I’d be more interested to see how you could,” Magnus countered. Alec couldn’t stop his line of vision from shooting to Magnus’ mouth, unable to reply as his attention moved to the light sheen of saliva across his bottom lip. It didn’t take Alec long to realise what he was doing, and his mind filled with expletives aimed at himself as his stare flickered back to meet Magnus’, only just then realising how close the pair were.

Alec caught himself and sat back. He glanced across at Isabelle, horrified to see that she was staring at them, the beginnings of a grin on her face.

“Why do you hate each other?” Alec’s sister asked, her tone definitely with an underlying trace of teasing.

“I… Just don’t, Izzy.” Alec grumbled, refusing to look in Magnus’ direction.

“Don’t what?” Isabelle smirked, raising her eyebrows. 

Alec heard Magnus scoff and he gave into himself, turning his head to glare at Magnus, becoming even more displeased as he saw a mocking smile in return.

The piercing sound of Isabelle’s ringtone saved Alec from coming up with a coherent reply to Isabelle’s question, and he tore his eyes away from Magnus’ smug grin to look over at his sister as she answered her phone. Please, not again.

Isabelle’s face fell as she listened to the voice on the other end of the line. “Fuck… yeah… sorry… yeah, I’ll be there soon, Mom.”

Alec’s eyes widened. “You’ll be where?”

Izzy held her index finger up at Alec, as a signal for him to wait. “Yeah, I know, Mom… Alec can’t right now, he’ll be along later, I promise… okay. Bye.” She closed her eyes momentarily as she hung up, before opening them again to look at Alec. “I forgot we’re both meant to be tutoring Max today. Obviously, you’re a bit tied up, but Mom wants me there now.”

“Oh, crap,” Alec mumbled, trying to work out how he could plead his sister without Magnus noticing. He didn’t look at Magnus, but knew he probably wouldn’t be looking too satisfied with this development either. “She wants me there, I need to come with you.” Anything but leave him alone with Magnus Bane.

“And explain this to Mom?” Izzy asked, waving a hand at Alec and Magnus to indicate what ‘this’ meant as she grabbed her crumpled coat from where it had been abandoned on one of Magnus’ chairs. “I don’t think that’s a good idea."

Alec knew she was right. Maryse would be unhappy enough with Alec being shackled to anyone, never mind Magnus. She had never liked him or appreciated his frequent presence in their house; she thought he was a bad influence on Isabelle. Alec couldn’t say he was surprised.

“I’m sorry, Alec. I’m sure the key is around somewhere, look for it yourselves. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Izzy promised, her voice more upbeat than it should have been as she walked to the door. Alec mentally added her to his kill list. “You two have fun.”

And then Alec and Magnus were alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hour One is about to begin!
> 
> Chat with me on [tumblr](http://immortalexander.tumblr.com) :)
> 
> Thank you to my [beta](http://alberto-rosendbae.tumblr.com)!


	3. Hour One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec and Magnus try to make breakfast. Emphasis on the 'try'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I'm really not good at sticking to my upload schedule, am I? 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy!

The silence of the apartment felt deafening to Alec’s ears. Something about the tranquility of the room felt so much more intense than the slam of the door a few minutes before. When Izzy had been present, the room had felt quieter. But, now she wasn’t. And Alec was alone with a man he couldn’t stand. A man who caused him to feel hyperaware of every one of his own movements when they were even in the same room, never mind on the same couch. A man who could somehow, annoyingly erase every coherent thought from his mind. Which seemed to be the situation at the moment, because Alec couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Not that he wanted to say anything, of course.

“As much as I adore doing nothing but sitting in silence,” the voice next to Alec said, snapping him out of his thoughts, “your lovely sister has provided us with the wonderful job of becoming a search party.” Magnus sighed dramatically, shifting slightly to prepare to stand up and turning to Alec in wait. “As I mentioned before, I was planning to do something with my day.”

Alec glowered at him. “Funnily enough, you’re not the only one,” he mumbled as he shuffled to the edge of the couch. Admittedly, his plans for the day had changed in his mind. Rather than spending his hours recovering from his night out, as he’d expected to do, he was now considering every possible way of getting sweet revenge on his siblings.

Magnus began to stand up and Alec followed suit. He stopped, however, when the room seemed to spin around him and his head throbbed strongly. He landed back against the cushions, steadying himself and closing his eyes as he willed the pain away. This was exactly why he hadn’t helped Jace and Izzy look for the key in the first place. 

Alec’s eyes flickered open… and then widened in surprise. Magnus’ face only a few inches from his own, his body back to its original position… although a little closer to Alec than before. Shit, Alec thought. He must have tugged Magnus back down by the handcuffs when he stumbled. He hadn’t even registered the other man landing next to him.

Magnus’ eyebrows were raised, a hint of a teasing smirk on his lips. Alec averted his eyes from him in embarrassment, shuffling towards the opposite side of the couch. Magnus let him, watching him in amusement as his steel-encompassed wrist was tugged as Alec moved.

“What?” Alec grumbled, staring at the floor. He knew he was blushing. He’d given up on hiding it.

“If you desired to spend more time with me on the couch, you could have just said so,” Magnus answered in a sing-song voice. 

Alec held back a groan, rolling his eyes. “Give it a rest. You know that’s not what’s going on.”

The amusement from Magnus’ expression disappeared and he hummed, seemingly in thought. “Yes, I do. This hangover of yours is becoming a real inconvenience to me.”

“To you?” Alec replied incredulously, his gaze back on Magnus. “I apologise.” He shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around the sheer disbelief he felt towards the other man. Seriously? Oh, God forbid anyone else’s suffering disturbed the bubble of self-obsession Magnus Bane seemed to float around in.

“Wonderful.” Magnus had appeared to ignore any trace of the sarcasm in Alec’s voice. “Now, do you think you can manage to get on your feet?”

“I’ll be fine,” Alec said in a monotone, before exhaling slowly as he tried to prepare himself to stand up. “We should look for the key.”

“Oh, no. That can wait,” Magnus told him, once again shuffling elegantly to the edge of the couch and looking to Alec. “You’re going to eat, and get over this pathetic sickness. Otherwise, you’re going to remain in this state and I do not wish to have to take charge of your every action. We do have the handcuffs, however I prefer things like that to be prearranged,” he finished, that goddamn smirk back on his face.

Alec didn’t respond with anything more than a scoff as he moved to stand up, knowing his words would probably come out in the wrong order if he tried to speak. 

Once the pair were on their feet (after an eye roll from Magnus when Alec took ten seconds to stand up), Alec glanced to Magnus hesitantly. “What am I going to eat then?”

“Food would probably be the best idea,” Magnus retorted, turning and beginning to walk towards the kitchen. The lack of warning at the movement shocked Alec, and he just managed to stop himself from tripping as he followed Magnus, his slower pace causing the handcuffs to strain between their wrists. Luckily, thanks to Isabelle and Jace, there were no longer objects scattered across the floor, meaning nothing to trip over except his own feet. Which he miraculously avoided.

Magnus tugged Alec into the kitchen promptly and Alec’s eyes swept across the room. He’d barely been into Magnus’ kitchen in the past. One of the two times he could recall was the time he’d come to pick Isabelle up from Magnus’ apartment in his car, when the weather had been diabolical and she’d had no money for the subway. The second time had been last night, when he distinctly remembered talking to Jace when he’d found the blond leaning over the sink. That had not been a pleasant few minutes. He’d never focused on the layout of the kitchen to notice the satisfying colour scheme of plum cupboards and metallic black countertops, giving the room a certain gothic feel which worked in harmony with the rest of the apartment. Well, with the rooms he’d seen, anyway.

They made their way over to the kitchen cupboards, Magnus using his right hand, (the one that wasn’t attached to Alec) to open and search for any simple foods he and Alec could eat. Alec eyed the food in the cupboards as Magnus sifted through the items, not that there was much in there. It seemed that most of the food Magnus owned had been consumed or was now covering the surfaces or floor. There were apples and oranges in the surrounding area of a glass fruit bowl, which was tipped on its side and balanced dangerously close to the edge of the marble kitchen counter. Close by to the bowl, there was what looked to be the remains of a block of cheese, now only a small bite-marked chunk remaining, as if a mouse had access to it. Or, a very drunk party guest. Even if Magnus had stocked up the day earlier, parties often meant that most food went missing by the next morning. Better food than valuable possessions, Alec supposed. From what he’d seen, Magnus had quite a few of those. Alec often wondered how he could afford the extravagant objects adorning nearly every inch of his apartment. He’d never asked Izzy what Magnus did for a living that could provide him with the funds to afford items such as the ones he owned. But, on the other hand, it seemed like Magnus had been used to living in the lap of luxury from a young age.

With the underwhelming choices for nourishment the pair were presented with, it seemed to take Magnus a strangely long time to decide between the items in his cabinets. A few eggs and the remaining stalk of a bunch of grapes were amongst the options. After two minutes of waiting, Alec rolled his eyes impatiently. 

“Do you have food or not?” he grumbled impatiently, leaning against the counter as he cautiously eyed the puddle of olive oil dripping from the surface onto the floor a couple of meters away. He picked up the tipped over bottle the oil was secreting from, scrunching his nose slightly as he tried to avoid getting the substance on his fingers. He considered cleaning the oil off the floor, but quickly pushed the thought out of his mind as he considered the difficulty of the task due to his cuffed wrist. Alec would have to bend down to clean it up, and Magnus’ current stance would mean the other man would almost definitely end up at least partially bent over Alec. And that was out of the question.

In answer to Alec’s enquiry about the whereabouts of food, Magnus’ ringed hand swooped elegantly into the cupboard and grabbed the last two eggs from the green carton, setting them on the counter. He then approached the freezer, ignoring Alec’s slight cry of protest has he was dragged. Alec watched him take a pack of bacon out of the freezer with his free hand, and he relaxed with content. Bacon and eggs. He could live with that. In fact, he’d be very grateful for it at the current time.

Magnus looked at Alec, tilting his head towards the food he’d placed down on the counter. Alec took it as a way of asking him if the breakfast Magnus had selected was alright, and nodded in response. He suddenly felt famished.

“Get a frying pan out of the cabinet in front of you,” Magnus instructed, gesturing to the door to the left of him, in front of Alec’s face. He returned his attention to opening the packet of bacon, the use of only his right hand slowing the process down slightly.

Alec did as Magnus instructed (with a small, sarcastic hint of “please”), rifling through the piled pots and pans hesitantly as he willed them not to come crashing out of the cupboard. After a couple of moments of struggling and manoeuvring the contents of the cabinet carefully, he placed the frying pan on the stove a couple of feet away with his unshackled hand. 

Magnus placed four strips of bacon into the centre of the pan. Alec watched Magnus grab a silver spatula from the utensils rack, fidgeting with the hem of his own black shirt as something to do. He wasn’t sure how he could assist with the cooking, it wasn’t exactly a two-man job. In all honesty, Alec needed a shower. His shirt felt uncomfortably grimy against his finger tips, suggesting that one or maybe five alcoholic drinks had ended up soaking into the material the previous night. He would have to make his peace with it, though. He wasn’t about to bring Magnus into the shower with him. Not that the other man would accept the proposition if he asked, obviously. Probably.

“As much as you seem to enjoy standing there doing nothing, scrambled eggs won’t happen if they stay in their shells,” Magnus told Alec, switching the gas hob to a low heat. 

Alec cleared his throat, nodding. He’d forgotten about the eggs. “Right. Yeah.” He opened the cabinet next to the one he’d retrieved the frying pan from, somehow feeling proud as he saw the stacked bowls and plates, letting him know he’d chosen the right cupboard. It was an odd thing to feel proud about. He took out one of the glass bowls and placed it in front of him before picking one of the eggs up. He’d never attempted to crack an egg with one hand, never mind with his non-dominant hand, but he didn’t seem to have many options. His right hand was still by his side, angled away from Magnus’ left one. Their hands hadn’t brushed so far, which relieved Alec. He wouldn’t focus enough on the relief to work out the exact reasons for it. 

Drifting out of his thoughts, Alec noticed that he’d been staring down at the egg in his hand for some time. He glanced at Magnus, letting out a short breath when he saw no evidence that the other man had realised. At least he would be spared of another attempt of a witty comment. He tapped the egg on the edge of the bowl until a crack formed and brought the egg over the bowl, using his fingers to attempt to split the shell in order for the whites and yolk to drop into the bowl. He smiled triumphantly as he succeeded, however his smile dropped as he saw just how much shell had entered the dish. God damn it.

“Where do you keep the forks?” Alec asked Magnus, trying to hide the exasperation from his voice. He’d need one to beat the eggs, and he also wasn’t about to use his fingers to get the shell out of the eggy contents of the bowl.

Magnus took a short, lithe step back. “This drawer in front of me.” 

Alec reached across himself with his left hand, pulling the drawer in front of Magnus open to look for the forks. However, he misjudged the strength he was putting into the movement, which resulted in the drawer being pulled out almost all the way, and his forearm brushing Magnus’ hip, dangerously close to his crotch. Alec’s eyes widened as he felt the fabric of Magnus’ trousers against his skin, his face heating up in embarrassment. 

“S-sorry.” He choked out, quickly grabbing the first fork he saw and closing the drawer forcefully. He turned his attention back to the egg as he focused all his attention on attempting to get the small pieces of shell out, avoiding looking in Magnus’ direction. 

Removing shell was difficult enough under normal circumstances where he could hold the bowl in place, but at the moment the movement of the fork against the glass was causing the bowl to slide annoyingly across the counter.

“This is pathetic. If you carry on like this, the bacon will be done hours before you even start scrambling the eggs. Unless you’ve lost feeling in your right hand, I don’t see why you can’t use it,” Magnus’ voice came from beside Alec, interrupting his efforts.

Alec glimpsed at him, his brow furrowed. “I thought you wouldn’t want your hand tugged around.”

Magnus chuckled humourlessly, using the spatula to shuffle the bacon in the pan. “Anything would be less insufferable than having to watch your futile attempts.”

“Right,” Alec grumbled, hesitantly lifting his banded wrist to hold the glass bowl in place as he kept removing the small pieces of shell. He aimed on moving his right hand as little as possible, not wanting to jerk Magnus’ hand any more than he needed to. Magnus had said he didn’t care, but Alec still didn’t feel comfortable doing it. 

After a few minutes, Alec cracked the last two eggs with the use of both of his hands, still being careful to not let his hand brush with Magnus’. He peeked over at Magnus, whose eyes were still fixed on the bacon frying in the pan. He seemed utterly unaffected by Alec’s movements. Alec turned back to his task, letting out a small sigh of relief when he inspected the contents of the bowl and noted a satisfactory lack of shell in the mixture. 

Alec looked down as he felt a light pressure and movement against his leg, a faint smile making its way onto his face as he saw Magnus’ cat rubbing against his ankles. In the few times he’d been to Magnus’ apartment, his cat had always turned up sooner or later. Alec may not like Magnus, but he liked his cat. And Magnus’ cat liked Alec, too.

“Morning, Chairman,” Alec heard Magnus say, watching as Chairman Meow moved to rub against Magnus’ ankles. “I’m surprised he likes you so much,” Magnus continued, obviously talking to Alec this time. “He’s usually quite cautious around other cats.”

Alec rolled his eyes indignantly, beginning to beat the eggs with the fork, probably slightly too roughly. “I think you went about an hour without referring to me as Grumpy Cat. Must be a record.”

“It’s too good to resist,” Magnus responded, and Alec could tell he was smiling by the sound of his voice. He stopped himself in his tracks of another eye roll, not wanting to dignify Magnus with any sort of reply. 

A reply of sorts was given, however, when Magnus accidentally tugged Alec’s cuffed hand a little too hard, and the contents of the bowl spilled over, landing on Alec’s hand and the counter below. Alex exclaimed in shock, quickly followed by a groan. “Well done.” He snapped sarcastically, putting the bowl down to observe his hand, inspecting how much egg mixture had made it out of the confines of the bowl.

Magnus laughed, obviously not seeing any sort of serious side to the event. All of Alec’s hard work to remove the shell…

“It’s not funny,” Alec mumbled as Magnus grabbed a dish towel from a drawer next to him. He passed it to Alec before opening one of the cupboards above his head. Alec glanced into the cupboard, seeing all sorts of spices and condiments. Chances were, Magnus was looking for salt and pepper. Alec looked back down at the bowl, carefully mopping up around it and wiping the mixture off his hands. Fortunately, there was still enough egg in the bowl for both of them. Alec did not want to have to go through the whole egg cracking ordeal again.

Alec threw the dish towel down absently and continued beating the eggs. What he had not realised was how close the dish towel now was to the open flame of the gas hob Magnus was cooking on. So close that the corner was right on top of it. After a few moments, a bright flash of orange caught his eye, and Alec swore in shock as the dish towel began to go up in flames. 

The commotion must have caught Magnus’ attention, because the other man also, for once, lost his cool and swore in shock. He grabbed the part of the towel that wasn’t set alight while Alec leaned over and turned on the water at the sink, stepping back so Magnus could throw the dish towel in.

The two men made sure the fire was out before relaxing. “That was probably slightly more ‘well done’ than either of us were expecting,” Magnus deadpanned.

Alec tried to think of a reply, probably something along the lines of Magnus ‘being ridiculous and not taking anything seriously’, but the smell of burning stopped him in his tracks. He looked into the frying pan, and saw that in the pandemonium, the bacon strips had fried past the point of being edible.

Magnus noticed the smell at the same time Alec did, and sighed gravely. “Thankfully, I do have more. You’re lucky I love meat.” 

___

Once the eggs were beaten, Alec added them to a pan and began heating it over the hob. On a normal day he probably would have added a drop of milk or water to produce a fluffier mixture, as well as a pinch of salt, but he was too hungover and too hungry to bother. Therefore, he left the eggs as they were, using the fork to stir and fold them carefully.

The two men cooked quietly, the only sounds bouncing around the room being the frying of the bacon and the sound of the spoon against the pan as Alec scrambled the eggs. After a short while, Magnus reached up and collected two patterned china plates from the cabinet, setting them down carefully on the counter next to the stove.

Once the food was distributed onto the two plates, Magnus grabbed some cutlery from the drawer in front of him and they moved to the table, setting the dishes down on the glass tabletop in front of a chair. Alec tugged one of the other chairs closer, knowing that he would have to sit near Magnus. He was beginning to forget what it was like to be out of close proximity to him. They’d really have to up their game with finding the key after they’d eaten breakfast.

Neither of them said anything as they ate, both savouring the taste of the succulent food. Knives weren’t especially needed for the meal. The crispy bacon could be broken up with the fork, meaning the men didn’t need to use both hands to eat, which Alec, at least, was grateful for. He was also grateful he no longer felt like throwing up. He wanted to enjoy this breakfast as much as possible after the effort it took to prepare it. Admittedly, the meal wasn’t the best it could have been, but to Alec it tasted like the food of Gods. He was enjoying it so much that he almost forgot about the silver, steel ring around his wrist.

Almost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chat with me on [tumblr](http://immortalexander.tumblr.com) :)
> 
> Once again, thank you to my [beta](http://alberto-rosendbae.tumblr.com)!


	4. Hour Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chairman Meow makes another appearance and Magnus refuses to look anything less than perfect.

Alec resisted the urge to devour his food, forcing himself to take his time. He guessed around twenty minutes had passed since they had sat down at the table. Despite trying to eat slowly, he finished before Magnus did, placing his cutlery down on the china plate and licking his lips as he sat back in his chair. Alec still didn’t feel one hundred percent, however the hot meal had improved his hungover condition considerably. He waited until Magnus had cleared his plate before speaking.

“Right, we should do the washing up,” Alec said, his eyes scanning their empty plates and the dirty pans on the stove. He’d always washed up straight after eating, if not whilst he was cooking. Growing up with Isabelle and Jace leaving their dirty utensils lying around had provided Alec with an aversion to procrastinating the washing up, and for years he’d been sure to clean up after eating a meal at the first available instance.

Magnus scoffed at Alec’s statement, leaning back in his seat and lifting up his un-cuffed hand, inspecting his nails. “It can wait. I’m not sure I can be bothered to find the motivation for it right now. I’m surprised you can.”

Alec turned to him, staring incredulously. “What, you just want to leave everything where it is? The kitchen is already a complete mess.” Even before they had prepared the food, there had not been one corner of the room that had been clean. Alec understood not tidying the entire kitchen right now, especially under their circumstances, but not even washing the dishes?

“What’s a little more mess? I’ll do it later,” Magus dismissed, waving his free hand absently towards the utensils and pans, his rings catching the sunlight glistening through the window.

“Magnus,” Alec replied sternly, quickly registering that he’d just addressed Magnus by his name for the first time that morning. “We can do it now.”

“We can, but we won’t,” Magnus countered, continuing to gaze at his nail polish. 

Alec knitted his dark eyebrows in aggravation. “Seriously? It’ll only take a few minutes.” 

Magnus opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off when Chairman Meow jumped up onto his lap. Magnus picked him up with one hand, holding the small cat close to his chest. “Chairman, will you please tell your fellow cat that the washing up can wait?”

Alec scoffed disbelievingly. Was Magnus really talking to him through his cat now? “Chairman, would you tell your owner that putting off doing the washing up won’t make it go away, and will only make it harder to clean later on?”

“Excuse me,” Magnus glared, obviously addressing Alec directly. “I’m not his owner, I’m his father.”

Alec raised his eyebrows slightly, unable to conceal the mocking laugh that escaped him. This man was ridiculous. “His father? He’s a cat.”

“And?” Magnus pushed, his scowl deepening as he set Chairman Meow down on his lap, petting his head gently. “I raised him from a kitten. I feed him, give him company and a home. He’s my son.”

“Oh, my apologies for not realising you were actually a cat. I didn’t notice your cat eyes and claws,” Alec ridiculed as he watched Magnus’ expression, feeling an odd sense of pride at finally managing to offend Magnus about something. It was usually the other way around, which had pissed Alec off incessantly. Finally, he was no longer on the receiving end. 

“Actually,” Magnus began, his eyes narrowed in obvious frustration, “I’m the only one in this room who isn’t a cat, Mr. Grumpy.”

Alec rolled his eyes at the predictable comeback. He felt powerful; he’d definitely affected Magnus with his insults about the Chairman. Magnus’ comebacks usually left him with a blank mind. “Really? When are you going to stop using that joke? It is beyond boring.”

“I’ll stop using it when it stops being accurate, darling,” Magnus retaliated bitterly, tearing his hard stare from Alec to look down at the Chairman, scratching lightly behind his eyes.

The ‘darling’ caught Alec off guard, and he wasn’t sure how to reply. Well, he supposed it was long overdue. He’d been doing too well in the argument. The tone of the nickname had been sarcastic, and Alec felt the appropriate irritation at the patronising emphasis of the word. He knew that irritation wasn’t all he felt, but he couldn’t quite put a name to the other emotion he was experiencing. All he knew was that he wanted to be far away from this man.

Alec groaned, resisting the urge to lay his head down on his dirty plate. Getting the leftovers of scrambled egg in his hair certainly wouldn’t improve anything. Except maybe convincing Magnus they should wash the dishes. “When the fuck will I be able to get away from you?”

“I’m not exactly enjoying your company either, Alexander,” Magnus replied, and although Alec wasn’t looking, he could tell Magnus was staring at him with a piercing glare.

Alec’s gaze didn’t stray from Magnus for long after he realised what Magnus had said. His eyes shot to Magnus’ face. “Alexander?” No one called him that, even his parents hadn’t called him ‘Alexander’ since he was nine years old.

“That is your name, isn’t it?” Magnus raised an eyebrow, a hint of a smirk playing on his lips as he ran his fingers over the Chairman’s back.

Alec clenched his jaw tightly. “My name is Alec,” he snapped.

“‘Alexander’ is a lot more interesting,” Magnus said thoughtfully, the name rolling off his tongue smoothly.

“Shut the fuck up,” Alec ordered, his voice shaking with anger. “Call me Alec or don’t call me anything.”

Magnus chuckled softly. “I would appreciate it if you didn’t use bad language around my son.”

Alec’s mouth opened and closed a few times as he comprehended what Magnus had just said. “You’re fucking unbelievable.”

“I try,” Magnus sang, leaning over to put Chairman Meow down carefully on the dark marble floor. He sat up straight again, before letting out a dramatic sigh. “Fine, you win. Let’s wash the dishes now.”

Alec was slightly taken aback by Magnus’ change of heart, but didn’t make it known. He nodded shortly, not wanting to speak to Magnus. Alec knew he was being petty, but he didn’t care. Magnus didn’t deserve the satisfaction of getting any response from Alec. He stood up with Magnus and they picked up their plates, making their way over to the kitchen sink. 

For their minimal communication when completing the task, they worked quite efficiently. Alec was in charge of washing the pans and dishes, while Magnus dried them. Alec could have tried to not clean too vigorously with his cuffed hand for Magnus’ benefit, as Magnus polished the dish towel over the washed dishes. He didn’t, though. He didn’t give a shit if he was making Magnus’ job difficult for him, and even let a small smile spread across his face when he ‘accidentally’ pulled Magnus’ hand under the running water. 

“Do you mind?” The familiar voice came from next to him. Alec ignored the owner of the voice, continuing to focus on the pan he was scrubbing. He tried a little bit to be more considerate, but ended up pulling Magnus’ hand under the stream a couple of more times for good measure. 

The rest of the work passed without the two men uttering a word to each other, and after about fifteen minutes, all the plates, cutlery and utensils were put back in their compartments, leaving the surface and sink clear. It allowed Alec to feel a little calmer, as if partially clearing the area had also partially cleared his mind.

“Happy?” Magnus asked Alec, stepping back from the sink. The counter still wasn’t clean, the damage from last night had seen to that, but the absence of dirty pans improved the appearance of the kitchen drastically. 

“Just about,” Alec confirmed, his gaze scanning the room and landing on the tipped over glass bowl and the fruit littering the floor. 

Magnus must have been watching his gaze, because he spoke again. “We’re not cleaning the entire room now. It can wait, we’ve done enough cleaning for now.”

Alec huffed as a way of submission. “Fine. But what if the key is under all this crap?” He hadn’t considered it before, but technically the key could be anywhere in the house. He hoped they would find it in the living room, if not in here. He didn’t really want to have to venture into Magnus’ bedroom to search.

“I don’t see why it would be in here,” Magnus shrugged. “Barely anyone came into the kitchen last night. Apart from you and your brother, I recall,” he continued, evidence of amusement in his tone.

“Don’t remind me,” Alec grumbled, not wanting to think about the time he spent trying to angle Jace over the sink. 

Magnus hummed softly. “It was not exactly a pleasant sight to see.”

“I wasn’t aware anyone had seen it,” Alec replied, his eyes straying to where he was tapping his fingertips of his left hand against the countertop absentmindedly. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Well, you were preoccupied,” he heard Magnus respond. “Besides, I can move stealthily when I want to.”

“Interesting to know,” Alec murmured. “Something you learned from your cat- sorry, your son?” he added, unable to keep the teasing edge from his question. His gaze left his fingers drumming lightly against the surface and he looked towards Magnus, only to find that the other man had also been watching Alec’s fingers. He immediately paused his movement, taking his hand off the counter. A small smile had made it’s way onto Magnus’ lips. Alec wasn’t sure when.

“Possibly,” Magnus began, in answer to Alec’s question. “Although, I’d like to think I’ve always been graceful.” 

Alec nodded gently in response to Magnus’ statement. He could definitely believe that.

“Speaking of the Chairman, I haven’t fed him yet,” Magnus continued, tugging Alec gently over to the lowest cabinet on the far side of the room and pulling out a can of chicken cat food and setting it on the counter. Alec let Magnus drag him over. He couldn’t exactly complain about Magnus needing to feed his pet. Well, he could, but he wouldn’t. 

“Poor thing must be starving, it’s already past midday,” Magnus murmured, picking up the Chairman’s metal food bowl. He quickly washed it out with one hand, before opening the new can of food. Alec hovered next to Magnus, recoiling slightly as the undesirable scent of the food entered his nose. He seemed to not be the only one who had picked up on the smell, as within the next few seconds the Chairman was behind them, letting out occasional soft meows to voice his anticipation for the meal.

Magnus quickly leant down to pick up the water bowl, passing it to Alec. “Fill this up for him, if you wouldn’t mind,” he requested, before beginning to empty the soft food into the Chairman’s food bowl. Alec did as he said, turning on the tap and waiting for the water to run cold before filling it up carefully. 

“I didn’t expect you to be the sort of person to feed your cat regular, branded cat food,” Alec stated as he held the bowl under the stream. “I expected deluxe tuna and salmon.”

“As a regular diet, fish can actually be quite detrimental to a cat’s health,” Magnus said, lifting his cuffed hand carefully to grab a fork from the drawer, taking Alec's hand with him. It didn't affect Alec, since he was holding the water bowl with his other hand. Magnus scraped the fork against the inside of the can to empty the remnants of the food into the bowl. “I provide him with treats time to time, however, canned food has the most benefits. And I’ll have you know this brand is far from cheap. The Chairman deserves nothing but the best.”

“Okay.” Alec hadn’t expected such a loaded answer to his question. Magnus really did see his cat as a son. Come to think of it, Alec had no idea about Magnus’ actual family, or even if he had one. It wasn’t a surprise he didn’t know; he’d never cared enough to find out. He didn’t want to ask Magnus now. It wasn’t any of his business.

Once the water and food had been presented in the bowls, the men placed them back in the spot on the kitchen floor. Chairman Meow was quickly in front of the food, his mews ceasing as he began to eat. The two men stood back, observing the cat for a moment. 

“Now,” Magnus began. “I may be able to make peace with being unable to change my outfit today. My make-up, however, is not one hundred percent right now, and I refuse to accept that.”

“Why does it matter?” Alec asked. “I’m the only one who can see you, and the status of your make-up is the last thing on my mind.”

Magnus raised his eyebrows at Alec. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’m not doing it for you.”

Alec sighed. “Fine.” It wasn’t like they had much else to do, and Alec knew that Magnus wouldn’t take ‘no’ for answer.

___

A few minutes later, Alec was standing next to Magnus in front of the bathroom mirror. Magnus had cleansed his face with make-up remover, and Alec was currently running his eyes over the array of products Magnus had retrieved from the make-up cupboard, which were now spread out over every surface within a two metre radius. 

Alec glanced around the room as he waited, taking in the sight of the bathroom. Almost every object in the bathroom were various shade of bronze and golds, apart from the glass shower in the corner. The room was complimented by the sienna tiles covering the walls, the floor a slightly darker colour. Gentle wall lights lit up the room, giving the area a warm and calming atmosphere. From what he’d seen of Magnus’ loft, each room had its own charm, and yet worked wonderfully when brought together as one home. Alec was certain he wouldn’t have the patience, never mind the skill, to create his own living environment so carefully.

Alec watched Magnus cover his face with a thin layer of primer and foundation, before expertly brushing a light contour over his skin. He guessed that Magnus was right-handed or ambidextrous, because he was applying his make-up with his free hand, his cuffed left hand down by his side with Alec’s right one. Each stroke of make-up was immaculate and smooth, and it left Alec with an incredible jealousy. Maybe if Alec had been able to use his dominant hand properly, breakfast wouldn’t have been so much of a disaster.

Alec had seen Isabelle applying her make-up more times than he could remember, even helping her once as she sported a broken wrist, due to a fall down the stairs after one of her high-heels had snapped. He was familiar with the process, but there was something fascinating about the way Magnus effortlessly swept product across his features. He had barely started his contour, but Alec could already see the newly defined angles of Magnus’ cheekbones. Alec tried hard not to stare, knowing that if Magnus caught his eye in the mirror, he’d become aware of just how closely Alec was looking. 

Alec noticed a bright, glittery eyeshadow palette on the surface in front of him and picked it up, assuming it’d be better to feign interest in Magnus’ products rather than Magnus himself. 

“Could you pass me that palette?” Magnus asked after a moment, gesturing to the one currently in Alec’s hand. Alec gave it to him, watching Magnus open it and pause as he selected a colour. Magnus eventually collected a deep emerald colour onto the end of his eyeshadow brush, looking in the mirror as he applied it over his eyelid. Alec picked up a random tube he spotted in front of him, pretending to read the label as he waited for Magnus. He snuck glances at Magnus occasionally, watching him blend a darker green tone around the outer edge of his eyes, which blended beautifully with Magnus' skin tone and the lighter shadow on his lid. He finished with a very pale gold in the inner corners of his lid and under his tear ducts, brightening the look and adding depth to the darker shades. Alec had never thought about wearing make-up, and yet he felt envy in the pit of his stomach, wishing he could look as good as Magnus did in that moment. He avoided catching sight of his own reflection in the mirror, not wanting to see the comparison between himself and the man next to him.

Magnus finished the look with eyeliner, mascara and a layer of lipgloss (which Alec definitely didn’t watch him apply), before spraying a setting mist over his face and putting the products down. He picked up his hairbrush from a few feet away, running the bristles through his hair as he moved his eyes over his reflection in the mirror. “That’s better.”

‘Better’ was a slight understatement, but Alec simply nodded along.

“Right,” Magnus said, breaking the silence. “You’re not going to enjoy what I’m about to say.”

Alec felt like his entire existence had been reduced to an overwhelming sense of dread as he took in Magnus’ words. He didn’t know what Magnus would say, but with this man it could be anything from having to take out the trash to asking Alec to help him hide a body.

“What is it?” he groaned - which came out as more of an embarrassing whine. If he was not ready to hear Magnus’ first statement, he was even less ready to hear what Magnus would say next.

Magnus didn’t speak, though. What he did do, was gesture to the toilet.

Oh, God. 

“What?” Alec asked hesitantly, not knowing exactly why he was asking. It was probably some sort of plea to a higher being. 

Magnus raised an eyebrow, small flecks of glitter caught in them reflecting the light. “Do I have to spell it out for you?” 

“Can’t you hold it?” Alec asked, doing the best he could to make sure his tone was nowhere near begging. He wasn’t sure if he’d succeeded. It wouldn’t change anything, anyway. Apart from possibly giving Magnus the motivation to make him more uncomfortable.

“No,” came the reply, and Alec grudgingly excepted his fate.

“Fine,” he mumbled grievously, closing his eyes momentarily before opening them again, as though the action would have allowed him to remove himself from the situation for a few seconds. It hadn’t worked. “Let’s get it over with, then.”

The pair walked over to the toilet, and Alec paused as they crossed the white marble floor. “How are we going to do this?”

“Well, I know what _I’m_ going to do.” Magnus started. “As for you, stand there and try not to look. I would suggest humming a song to distract you, but people as moody as you rarely seem to enjoy music. Recite the Pledge of Allegiance if that makes you happy.”

There were so many things wrong with what Magnus had just said that Alec didn’t bother to address any of it. He simply rolled his eyes and let Magnus lead him the rest of the way across the room until they were standing in front of the toilet.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” he growled under his breath as he turned around and stared at the wall, letting Magnus get on with whatever he needed to do. He closed his eyes, trying to kid himself into thinking he was back in his own apartment, standing in his own room, alone. But Alec had never had an amazingly active imagination and couldn’t manage to take his mind out of Magnus’ bathroom. He opened his eyes again, sighing softly as he looked everywhere but Magnus’ direction.

A few moments later, the ordeal was finally over and Alec allowed himself to relax as Magnus dragged him over to the polished sink to wash his hands.

“I’m never doing that again,” Alec scowled as Magnus squirted sandalwood scented soap from the cylinder bottle onto his hands. “You’ll have to hold it next time.”

“I think you’ll be needing to go before me, darling,” Magnus contradicted, rinsing his hands under the stream of water. 

Alec hadn’t thought of that. And there was that fucking ‘darling’ again. He couldn’t stand much more of this. “Enough. We are going back to the living room right now and finding that fucking key,” he told Magnus, barely waiting for the other man to dry his hands before yanking on the cuffs, tugging him out of the room.

A light chuckle came from behind him, which made Alec even angrier. How could Magnus still be laughing at this point? 

“I’ve never seen you so dominant,” was the next thing Magnus said. “Interesting.”

“Nothing about this is interesting,” Alec growled as they entered the living room. He was so on edge that he’d forgotten to become flustered at Magnus’ comment about his dominance. “Nothing about any of this is interesting.” He didn’t pause to let Magnus reply, having lost complete control over his filter. “This is probably the least interesting thing I’ve ever experienced. And I’ve had to listen to Jace drone on about Clary non-stop for the last month. We’re going to find the damn key and I’m going to go home and never speak to you again. I hate you and you hate me and that’s that. So please just back off and search for our only way out of this bullshit.”

“That’s _perfectly_ fine with me, Alexander.”

It took all of Alec’s strength to ignore his full name, by that point having dragged Magnus back to the couch they had woken up on. He tried to quickly scan the floor for any sign of gleaming steel, but he was too busy steaming with rage to focus.

As he was moving his gaze across the area, his eyes landed on his phone, which was poking out from underneath the couch. He bent down to pick it up, planning to direct his anger at different recipients. Two, to be exact. Alec unlocked his phone with his left hand and went into his texts, typing out multiple messages to Jace.

To Jace: _What the hell were you doing leaving me here with Magnus?_  
To Jace: _Izzy left and now I’m alone with him and I can’t fucking stand it_  
To Jace: _I know your girlfriend needed you but you’ve been gone hours_  
To Jace: _You better get back here ASAP_  
To Jace: _I swear to god I’ll tell Clary every embarrassing and incriminating thing you’ve ever done_  
To Jace:  _And I mean everything_

He sent the messages consecutively, before opening up Isabelle’s thread.

“I can’t help but notice we’re not searching right now, like you said we would,” he heard Magnus say next to him, and Alec didn’t know if he’d imagined the smugness in his tone or not but he honestly didn’t care.

“Fuck off,” he muttered, his fingers flying over the keypad as he typed out a text to Izzy. He wasn’t as harsh with her as he had been with Jace. Alec knew their little brother’s tutoring was important, especially since he’d been struggling in class for quite some time. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t angry. 

After sending the text, he slipped his phone into his pocket and took a deep breath, trying to calm down.

“Let’s find this key, then.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chat with me on [tumblr](http://immortalexander.tumblr.com) :)
> 
> Thank once again to my [beta](http://alberto-rosendbae.tumblr.com)!! <3


	5. Hour Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus and Alec collects Magnus' post, which has catastrophic effects on the day.

Alec was beginning to lose all hope. He and Magnus had turned the living room on its head in the last twenty-five minutes as they had scoured the apartment for that wonderful little metal device which could free Alec of these literal and metaphorical chains. He was utterly exhausted after spending so much time with Magnus, despite only being awake for around three hours. Izzy had replied to the text Alec had sent her, apologising that she couldn’t get away from her duty of tutoring. Alec had a feeling that would be the case, and he could understand it. Jace, on the other hand, hadn’t replied. Alec wasn’t sure whether he’d seen the text or not, since Jace barely ever checked his phone, especially when he was with Clary. He didn’t expect a reply within the next eight hours. Anyway, his younger brother’s texting habits were so unintelligible that Alec had come to the conclusion that there wasn’t much point in receiving a reply. It wasn’t as if he’d be able to decipher a message amongst the ridiculous abbreviations and symbols.

The hunt for the key had been awkward. As they’d bent down to look under tables, and picked up stray cushions and books, Alec had continuously managed to trip over either his own feet or Magnus’, thankfully catching himself each time before he stumbled too far and he and Magnus landed in a heap. It was increasingly annoying due to the fact that Magnus had stayed agile and refined the entire time, not even wobbling when Alec had. Alec didn’t know how the other man did it. How did he stay so lithe while Alec was a complete mess?

Magnus’ elegancy just added another reason for Alec to be angry at him. And he was still very angry. He hadn’t spoken to Magnus since the search began. He had managed to calm down, in the sense that he no longer imagined steam whistling out of his ears like an old cartoon, but he still knew that if he were to speak to Magnus, or vice versa, the fury would come flooding back, filling him up until he would have another outburst. 

Maybe he wouldn’t need to converse with Magnus to gain his anger back, because the key still hadn’t turned up. Sooner or later they’d have to resort to another way of getting out of the shackles. Magnus had already stated he didn’t own any tools (which was moronic, in Alec’s mind. Everyone should own tools), but surely they could find another solution. Alec pulled back the floor-length curtain to check if the key had slipped under, trying to think of possible options, when Magnus spoke.

“I haven’t collected my post yet,” the glittery man declared.

Alec glanced at him, his eyebrows raised slightly before turning back to the curtain, moving his gaze downward to the floor as he skimmed the area for the key. “Interesting.”

“I would like to do it, if you don’t mind,” Magnus advanced, although it was clear from his tone that he didn’t care whether Alec minded or not. 

“How do you even know you have post?” Alec asked. He rarely got post himself, and most of the time didn’t bother checking.

Magnus chuckled, quite condescendingly in Alec’s opinion. “I _always_ have post.”

Touché. Alec exhaled slowly, dragging the curtain back to its original position. “Fine.” It wasn’t as if the search was going well, anyway. 

“Good.” Magnus led him across the floor to the apartment door, stopping off to pick up the post key he kept in a bowl with his apartment keys. If only another key had been in the pile, Alec thought to himself. Reaching the door, Magnus opened it with an unnecessary flourish that prompted a scoff from Alec. Magnus seemed to ignore him, and the pair walked down the wooden steps to the mailboxes near the front door. For such an expensive-looking apartment, the staircase and lobby weren’t really much to write home about, Alec thought as they descended the steps. Magnus’ apartment was hugely spacious, although Alec guessed that if it weren’t for Magnus’ decorative and excessive possessions, the home would look a lot less impressive.

They approached the box with Magnus’ number on it, and Alec watched as Magnus unlocked it. Alec so wished that they would be greeted with nothing in the cabinet. Maybe that would wipe the smug look of Magnus’ face.

A sound came behind them, and Alec turned to the source of the noise, his eyes landing on a middle-aged woman opening the front door. He immediately panicked, shuffling closer to Magnus and blocking the view of their hands in front of his body. It had been bad enough being handcuffed to Magnus in front of Jace and Izzy, never mind in front of a witness. 

Magnus looked at Alec and down at their hands, obviously puzzled with Alec’s gesture before he turned to the door. Then he must have realised what was going on because that shit-eating grin spread across his face. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Rollins.”

“Good afternoon, Magnus,” Mrs. Rollins smiled, approaching her own mail box, using her key to unlock it. Alec had been watching her since he’d laid eyes on her, wanting to ensure that her gaze hadn’t moved to the handcuffs. However, continuing to watch her as she checked her mail would be taking it too far, so Alec returned his gaze to Magnus’ box as he swung it open.

Sure enough, there was a pile of mail sitting in the centre. Damn it.

“As expected,” Magnus sang, collecting the post out of the box with a smirk. If that wasn’t enough, he then turned to Mrs. Rollins. “Excuse me for not introducing my companion.” Alec froze. The last thing he needed was attention drawn to himself, and to the situation around his wrist. “This is Alec.”

Alec gave the woman a tight-lipped smile, trying to hide his obvious discomfort. “Hi.”

“Hello, Alec,” Mrs. Rollins greeted, lifting her arm to offer Alec a handshake. Which would have been fine, if Alec’s right hand wasn’t attached to Magnus’. Shit. What the fuck was he supposed to do? He fucking hated Magnus Bane.

He knew he was coming off as incredibly rude, but that was better than opening up a can of worms if Mrs. Rollins saw the handcuffs. God knows what she’d think. So, he smiled again and turned towards Magnus, pretending not to have seen the offered handshake, despite having pointedly looked at her hand as he had tried to work out what the hell to do.

Alec heard Mrs. Rollins clear her throat awkwardly and he hated himself for it. Although, as usual, he hated Magnus more. He stayed still and quiet as the woman closed her mail box and made her way to her apartment after saying a short goodbye to Magnus.

“Sorry about him, Mrs. Rollins,” Magnus called after his neighbour as she walked away. “He’s a little grumpy sometimes.”

Alec shot daggers at Magnus. “I can’t fucking believe you.”

“You could have shaken her hand,” Magnus informed him, setting his post on top of the box and locking the cabinet. 

“She would have seen the handcuffs and you know that,” Alec hissed. “I’d rather come across rude than… whatever she would have thought if she’d seen our hands. Although, I wouldn’t have had to come across as either of them if it weren’t for you.”

“It was worth it,” Magnus teased. “You’re cute when you’re flustered.”

Alec’s mind went blank and he couldn’t work out if what he was feeling was rage or embarrassment or bashfulness. Most likely a mixture of all three. “I- y-you can’t- just shut the fuck up,” he finished in defeat. “You’ve got your…” he took a look at the cover of the magazine on top of Magnus’ pile, which consisted of a lot of pink and good-looking people Alec didn’t recognise wearing seemingly fashionable clothes. “… Monthly subscription to ‘Idris Style’ now, so let’s just go back upstairs.”

Magnus laughed and scooped up the pile of mail, holding it to his chest. Alec watched him turn to the steps before he faltered, his eyes on the entrance of the building.

“It seems Mrs. Rollins forgot to shut the door,” Magnus hummed, leading Alec over to the door so he could close it. “It isn’t the first time she’s done that.”

“Right, well let’s just close it and go. I want to be back in your apartment as soon as possible.” There were twelve words Alec never thought he would say consecutively.

“Alright,” Magnus droned in a bored tone, shutting the door firmly. 

The men ascended the slightly rickety stairs and entered Magnus’ apartment. Magnus closed the door behind them and placed his mail on the small table beside the door, dropping his post key into the bowl. Alec watched him, his anger building at how nonchalant Magnus was being after what he just did. 

“I still cannot believe you just humiliated me in front of your neighbour,” Alec grumbled, once again glaring at Magnus. “Haven’t you punished me enough, forcing me to spend the day with you?”

“You know that if it were up to me, Alexander, you wouldn’t be anywhere near me,” Magnus replied, drawing out Alec’s name in a way that made Alec’s blood boil.

Alec clenched his jaw. He knew he shouldn’t rise to the bait. That was exactly what Magnus wanted. But he couldn’t help himself. “I thought I told you not to call me that.”

“You thought? On the contrary, I don’t recall you ever saying that, Alexander,” Magnus teased, the smirk having not completely left his face since it made its residence there, back when the pair had been downstairs. Alec knew he wouldn’t be able to stand seeing that smirk for much longer.

“I swear to God, Magnus…” Alec snapped. He didn’t continue his sentence; like many instances lately, he didn’t know what to say. He hoped Magnus got the gist.

“Maybe the Chairman will cheer you up, the two of you seem to enjoy each other’s company. I can’t stand you moping around much longer. You’re even bringing _me_ down,” Magnus said, taking a few steps and prompting Alec to follow him. Alec did so, glaring at him.

The shorter man led Alec over to an antique wooden chest in the corner of the room, kneeling down in front of cuboid structure. Alec knelt down next to him watching as Magnus unfastened the latch to open it. He peered in, curious about what may be in there, and why Magnus had felt the need to access its contents. He’d never seen what was inside it, but had wondered. He’d assumed old documents or photo albums. He hadn’t expected what he was currently observing, but it made a lot of sense. The chest was filled with cat toys. Fake mice, small plastic balls, a scratching post lying on its side, peeking out from under a pile of feathers on sticks. Chairman Meow certainly was spoiled for choice when it came to entertainment.

Magnus pulled out a fake blue mouse, handing it to Alec. “I usually keep his toys in here to prevent them from littering the apartment.” He told Alec, who was turning the furry blue toy over in his hand left hand, the bell hidden under the fur causing a quiet jingle from inside the toy. “He adores them, so I take some of them out for a few hours every day so he can play.” 

Alec nodded, running his thumb over the red bead on the end of the ‘mouse’’s snout, assuming it was meant to represent a nose. “And these are his favourite?” He asked, his eyes meeting Magnus’ as he gestured to the mouse.

Magnus nodded. “They have catnip in them.”

Alec couldn’t help but smile faintly. That made sense. “Right.” He glanced around the room for the cat. “Where is he?”

“Funnily enough, he doesn’t constantly update me on his location. GPS technology hasn’t been developed enough to be installed into cats,” Magnus said sarcastically. “That’ll be a useful advancement in the future. Maybe I’ll be the one to produce it.”

“Whatever,” Alec mumbled as Magnus closed the chest. He would never admit it to Magnus, but he was verging on touched at finding out that Magnus was not only okay with Alec playing with his pet, but encouraging it… even if Alec had felt offended at Magnus’ comment about him being ‘mopey’. But that was nothing knew. What was new, though, was the fact that Magnus was right. For once. Playing with the cat probably would calm Alec down a lot. He hadn’t spent time with a cat since Church. Chairman Meow was evidently incredibly important to Magnus. Alec didn’t know if other people were given the opportunity, but Izzy had never mentioned it. Although, Alec wouldn’t expect her to if she had. Playing with someone’s pet wasn’t exactly the makings of front page news.

Alec stood up as Magnus did, holding the toy mouse in his hand. He shook the mouse gently, the sound of the ringing bell bouncing off the walls of the living room. Maybe the Chairman would be attracted by the noise. He waited for a while, but there was no movement from elsewhere in the apartment.

“That’s odd,” Magnus said from beside him. “He’s always at my feet the moment he hears the mouse. He’s had this ever since he was a kitten.”

Alec shrugged. “Maybe he’s sleeping.” He didn’t know where the cat would be sleeping, though. There was a plush, purple velvet cat bed in the far corner of the living room, but it was currently empty. “Does he sleep anywhere other than this bed?”

“He could possibly be on my bed,” Magnus suggested, beginning to make his way towards his room, and with the cuffs, Alec had no choice but to follow. So, Magnus was the type of person to allow his cat to sleep on his bed. For some reason, Alec hadn’t expected that. Despite obviously loving his pet, Magnus seemed like the sort of person to care a lot about getting animal hair on his furniture. 

They reached Magnus’ bedroom and Alec licked his lips nervously as Magnus opened the door to enter the room. For reasons unknown, Alec felt like he shouldn’t be entering Magnus’ room. He hadn’t wanted to venture in there to look for the key, and his feelings hadn’t changed since then. But apparently, right now he was left without other options. Magnus led Alec into the room, leading him around as he searched for the Chairman.

Magnus’ bedroom was in some ways exactly how Alec had imagined it, and in other ways completely different. After seeing the rest of the other man’s apartment, Alec was not surprised at the level of decoration the bedroom possessed. His eyes immediately moved to the majestic four-poster bed in the middle of the room, red and gold velvet adorning the poles. The bedsheets and duvet were similar colours and materials, furnished with more pillows and cushions than Alec could count. The bed looked incredibly comfortable, and Alec mentally kicked himself for letting that thought cross his mind. He tore his eyes away from the bed, looking around the rest of the room. Patterned rugs covered the floor, perpendicular with long, floor length bronze curtains covering the window, not dissimilar to the curtains in the living room. There were various lights spotted around the room, such as a small light with a red fabric lampshade on Magnus’ bedside table, and an overhead light, surrounded by a red lampshade with black fringing. Alec also noticed that the various candles placed throughout the room were embellished with drips of wax, frozen against the surface of the partially melted cylinders, illustrating to Alec their frequent use.

The candles were the first thing Alec hadn’t been expecting. The second thing was how many photographs Magnus had in the room. They were everywhere, on top of his wardrobe, next to his alarm clock, hung up on walls. The subjects in the photographs varied a little, but the same few people recurred. Many of the photos were of Magnus and middle-aged woman. From the looks of things, they seemed to be related. They also seemed to have been taken a while ago, since Magnus looked to be quite young, possibly around seventeen. The other two recurring people were a man and a woman, around the same age as Magnus. Some of the photos looked recent, while others had obviously been taken when Magnus was very young. This mystery couple were obviously very good friends with Magnus and had known him for a long time. Alec wondered why he hadn’t seen them at Magnus’ party the night before.

“If you’ve quite finished gawking at my room,” Magnus’ voice sounded, crashing through Alec’s thoughts. “You’ll notice that the Chairman isn’t in here.”

“O-oh… yeah, he’s not.” Alec felt immensely guilty for forgetting the one reason they went into the room, having decided to focus instead on trying to work out Magnus’ past. He may not like the guy, but he still felt awful for invading his privacy. It wasn’t like Magnus would have invited Alec into his room if he’d had the choice.

But Magnus didn’t seem to be focusing on that right now.

“Where is he?” he sighed, looking visibly worried. “I’m always able to find him.”

“He’ll be around here somewhere,” Alec assured him. Usually, he wouldn’t have been so caring towards Magnus, but added to the guilt he already felt for scrutinising his room, he also remembered how upset Isabelle had gotten over a decade ago when Church had gone missing for a few days. Alec had been upset too, but he’d never been as close with Church as Izzy had been. Sure, Izzy hadn’t even been ten at the time, and Magnus was in his early twenties, but the principle was the same. “We haven’t checked the entire apartment yet. He could be in the kitchen, or bathroom. He could have gone from one of those rooms to the living room by now. We’ll search and we’ll find him.”

So, they did just that. They checked the entire apartment, using the mouse toy as bait. Twice. With no luck. 

“He must have ventured out when we went to collect the mail,” Magnus said as they exited the kitchen. “We left the apartment door open, and Mrs. Rollins left the front door open until I closed it. He must have got out then. He must have.”

“Is that a big deal?” Alec asked. “Cats go outside all the time.”

“The Chairman is a house cat,” Magnus replied. “He doesn’t go outside. And now that he has, it could be dangerous for him. It’s likely he will not be able to find his way back.” This Magnus was so different to the Magnus Alec usually interacted with. This Magnus seemed smaller, more timid and vulnerable. It was understandable given the current circumstance, but Alec wondered if this was what Magnus was really like when he let his guard down.

“What do you want to do?” Alec asked, having a feeling that he already knew the answer.

“We have to go outside. Search for him,” Magnus said quickly. 

After what had happened with Mrs. Rollins, Alec despised the idea of going outside. One person seeing them handcuffed together had been bad enough, never mind potentially an entire city’s worth. Alec’s first, selfish instinct was to say ‘no, I’m not going to let anyone see us like this, your cat will be fine, he’ll come home eventually’. But one look at Magnus’ face broke something in Alec, and he didn’t think about the words as he said them.

“Okay, let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you to my [beta](http://alberto-rosendbae.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> A big thumbs up if you have noticed the pun in the chapter summary. Magnus would be proud of you.


	6. Hour Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus and Alec take to the streets to look for the Chairman. Conversation ensues.

Alec regretted leaving the apartment the moment they stepped over the threshold of Magnus’ home and into the dreary stillness of the staircase. Nothing about his physical state had changed in the past hour; he still needed a shower, his clothes felt grubby and soiled against his skin, and his right hand was very much still attached to Magnus’. As for his mental state, he was exhausted. He always required a day to recover from a party, but having to spend that day with Magnus had slowed down his recovery immensely. The man had really tried Alec’s patience in the past three hours, and had managed to break that patience a couple of times. However, Alec was trying his best to channel his inner good nature, since Magnus cared a lot about his pet and seemed distressed that they hadn’t managed to find him. Despite coming up with a very, very long mental list of things Alec would rather be doing at that moment, and despite how much he disliked Magnus, he couldn’t force him to stay inside when his pet could be in danger.

So, here they were, making their way down the stairs to the front door of the building. Alec had slipped on his coat… sort of. The fact that the handcuffs wouldn’t allow him to shove his left arm through the sleeve meant that the right side of Alec’s body was correctly wearing the coat, while the thick, long black fabric was draped over his left shoulder. Alec knew he looked ludicrous, but he was wearing handcuffs. He was thankful for anything that would distract people from that fact. 

Magnus, on the other hand, hadn’t put on a jacket. Maybe he didn’t want to look as ridiculous as Alec did right now, although somehow Alec doubted Magnus could ever look as ridiculous as he did at that moment. Maybe Magnus hadn’t bothered because he wanted to get onto the streets as soon as he could. Maybe he hadn’t bothered because he was one of those people who magically didn’t feel the cold weather, even on a chilly day in March.

The two men exited the Magnus’ building and Alec quickly scanned the street in front of him for any sign of a blur of tortoise shell fur. However, he knew in his heart that the Chairman would be long gone by now. It’d been at least twenty minutes since they’d even noticed the cat had gone missing, and even longer since the moment they’d pinpointed as the instant the cat had made his escape. He could be a block or three away in any direction. The only thing they could do would be to search. They’d decided to bring the toy mouse out, thinking it may attract the Chairman.

“Which way do you want to go?” Alec asked Magnus, his eyes browsing the street. Magnus’ apartment was on the corner of the block, giving the men a choice of four roads to venture down. The streets were relatively quiet for a Saturday afternoon, although there were a handful of people in sight. Alec wished the streets had been emptier; he didn’t want to risk more people seeing the handcuffs than necessary.

Magnus took a few moments to answer Alec’s question. “To the right,” he eventually answered. “It seems to be where the most people are. We can ask them if they’ve seen him.”

Well, that answered any queries Alec had about whether Magnus would be embarrassed for strangers to spot them handcuffed together. Not that he’d expected Magnus to feel even the slightest bit of shame. From how Magnus had acted towards Alec, just today, with the occasional innuendos and careless comments, it was clear that Magnus was not used to feeling shame about anything. Nothing about Magnus’ demeanour had changed since their first meeting, those few months ago, when Magnus had immediately tried to chat Alec up. Except Alec knew that any recent ‘flirting’, if Alec could even call it that, was not genuine. It was just… Magnus. It was how he acted. It was his way of trying to piss Alec off. And irritatingly, it worked.

Alec despised the way he reacted to Magnus’ teasing. Magnus obviously knew it would get a response, why else would he keep insisting on doing it? He’d say things that would make Alec blush, that would make him completely forget his train of thought. And it didn’t make any sense, because Alec had no reason to blush. Magnus may be… Alec refused to say attractive - he was not bad to look at… but that didn’t at all change his arrogance, his disregard for Alec’s feelings, his huge ego. Alec hated that. He hated him. So why the hell could one provocative line, or a certain look, make Alec’s mind go blank?

Alec forced himself to stop thinking about it. He zoned back into his current surroundings, finding that he and Magnus had turned right, as Magnus suggested, and were walking slowly down the street. Alec didn’t remember agreeing to go this way, but he assumed he must have done. He really needed to stop… thinking so much. He needed to focus on the task at hand. 

The two men checked under cars, behind trash cans, anywhere they thought the Chairman could be hiding. After a couple of minutes of bad luck, Magnus tugged Alec over to a young woman who was standing by the doorway of a store. She was swiping her finger over the screen of her phone, and shuffling impatiently from one foot to the other. Alec guessed she was waiting for someone.

“Excuse me?” Magnus asked, approaching the woman slowly. She looked up from her phone, running her gaze over Alec and Magnus. Alec stood close to Magnus, not caring how it looked. Having two strange men come up to you in the street was probably odd enough, never mind spotting that they’re handcuffed together like a couple of convicts. That would most likely scare the woman off immediately. 

“Yes?” she asked carefully, slipping her phone into her pocket. Alec hoped she wasn’t wary of them already, although he couldn’t blame her.

“We’re looking for a cat,” he said quickly, wanting to make their intentions clear as soon as he could.

Magnus nodded next to him. “He’s quite small. Tortoise shell. He escaped from my apartment almost an hour ago.”

The woman seemed to think for a moment, before shaking her head. “I haven’t seen him, sorry,” she said dismissively, looking back to her phone screen.

Alec and Magnus thanked her, before continuing their journey down the road. Luckily, the woman hadn’t seemed to have noticed the handcuffs. Alec was sure he’d have seen it on her face if she had.

The pair continued down the street, asking person after person as they went. Alec knew that a few of them had spotted the handcuffs. None of them had said anything, but he’d seen the judgemental looks. He tried to ignore the feeling of humiliation travelling through his body. ‘I’ll never see these people again’, Alec thought. ‘What did it matter?’ At least, that’s what he tried to tell himself.

Alec wasn’t counting, but he was sure they’d asked at least ten people before Magnus pulled him to a stop.

“Someone has got to have seen him.” Magnus said, looking away from Alec. He sounded genuinely upset. Alec had to feel at least a little sorry for him.

“Well, he is small, like you said,” Alec reasoned. “Cats can run fast, too. They’re often hard to spot.”

“While I admire your obvious talent at such insightful statements,” Magnus started, his voice full of sarcasm, “that will not aid us in finding him.”

“What do you expect me to do?” Alec asked. The short moment of feeling sorry for Magnus had passed, the familiar bubble of anger beginning in his chest. “I’m not a cat whisperer. I can’t connect telepathically with him and ask him to come back. I can’t use my cell phone to call him. If you have any better ideas than scouting the streets, please, put me out of my misery and voice them. I’m not going to let you somehow blame me for being unable to find your cat, when you’re not exactly coming up with anything helpful. Maybe you should learn to look after your pet instead of letting him disappear and then blaming me for it. He’s probably gone to find a better home.”

Okay, that was too far. Alec regretted the words as soon as they’d left his mouth. Alec had seen how much Magnus loved Chairman Meow, from what he’d told Alec about the cat’s dietary habits, to showing Alec his cat’s favourite toys. He was pretty sure he’d even spotted a cushion on one of the chairs in Magnus’ apartment, ‘Chairman Meow’ stitched elegantly across the front, the surface of the fabric embroidered with beads. Anyone could see that Magnus adored his pet.

Magnus wasn’t saying anything. That was how Alec knew he’d crossed a line. Magnus always had a comeback ready to leave Alec speechless. Always. But now, he wasn’t even trying. He was avoiding Alec’s eyes, his gaze downcast to the ground. Usually, the man was only a few inches shorter than Alec, but now he looked… tiny. Curled in on himself, somehow. 

“Magnus, I’m sorry,” Alec apologised, rubbing the back of his own neck in guilt. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

Alec’s gaze moved to Magnus’ face, watching for any flash of anger or hatred. But his expression was unreadable. After a few silent moments, Magnus spoke.

“Well, let’s keep looking,” he said, his face hardening, a world of difference from his expression only a couple of seconds ago. He turned around, beginning to tug Alec back down the street.

Alec wasn’t sure what to say to Magnus. The other man had dismissed his apology, and seemed to dismiss the negative things Alec had said. That was a first.

Magnus stayed quiet as they made their way down the road, continuing to check in any places he thought the Chairman could be hiding. Alec wasn’t sure what was going on in Magnus’ mind, but it was obvious that any walls Magnus had let down in the last hour were back up, stronger than ever. 

“The Chairman is a smart cat. If we are not able to find him now, he’ll be in front of my door by tomorrow morning,” Magnus said, a new air of confidence about his person. Alec wondered how much of that confidence was legitimate. He nodded anyway, as a way of support. He couldn’t exactly disagree after what he’d just said to Magnus.

“At least if we find him now, we’ll be able to return to my apartment, find the key, and get you out of my life,” Magnus continued nonchalantly, with the same confidence. Every time he’d insulted Alec before, he’d sounded pissed off, angry, teasing, _something_. Now there was barely any intonation, as if he genuinely didn’t give a second thought about Alec. Like he wasn’t intent on getting any reaction from Alec at all. 

“Yeah,” was all Alec could say, becoming silent once again as they walked.

Once they’d retraced their steps down the street, they walked back past Magnus’ apartment, turning onto one of the quieter streets. There would be less people who may have seen the Chairman (and would see the handcuffs),but maybe the cat had gone this way due to the comparably calmer atmosphere of the street they’d just checked. 

“I _must_ read my new issue of ‘Idris Style’ after you leave,” Magnus stated after a moment, his voice light and carefree. Magnus was changing his demeanour so often that Alec was unsure how to respond.

“It’s been days since I’ve looked at the changes in trends. My clothes would never go out of style, of course, I practically invented fashion, but a little inspiration never hurt anyone,” he continued as he scanned his eyes around the environment for the Chairman. “I may even start creating accessories for the Chairman. He’d look adorable in a bow tie.” 

“Right,” Alec murmured, the only response to Magnus’ statements that he could come up with. Magnus’ sudden rambling took Alec by surprise; he’d expected the other man to remain silent as they looked for the cat. He really could not work Magnus Bane out.

“How long have you had your cat?” Alec asked, deciding to initiate a new conversation. He didn’t know what was going through Magnus’ head, but he gathered that the man took some sort of comfort in talking. Alec owed it to him after being so rude. Regardless of how Magnus had treated Alec in the past, it had never been that personal.

“I’ve had the Chairman since he was a kitten,” Magnus said after a short pause, his voice a little softer than before. It seemed the simple question had lowered Magnus’ walls slightly. “Five years. It isn’t an obscenely long time, but it feels like a lifetime. I got him shortly before I moved to Brooklyn.”

Alec nodded slowly as he glanced down an alleyway, checking for any movement. “Where did you live before?”

“I’m from Indonesia originally. I moved to the States when I was fifteen. Massachusetts. Then moved here three years ago,” Magnus recalled, shaking the toy mouse absentmindedly, the bell on the toy jingling.

“Why’d you move here?” Alec asked.

Magnus was silent for a suspiciously long time. Alec glanced at him, just in time to see a very bright, very fake smile appear on Magnus’ face. “Who wouldn’t want to live here? I love the hustle of being in the city, and being able to see the Brooklyn Bridge from my living room is ideal.”

Alec hummed in agreement, deciding not to question Magnus about the answer he’d given. It was believable, but something in Magnus’ tone, as well as the silence before he had spoken, told Alec that what Magnus had just said was complete bullshit. It wasn’t his right to pry, though.

“I got the Chairman in Massachusetts, and he moved here with me,” Magnus said. “He has been a huge part of my life. I can’t imagine him not being there.” 

Now, Alec wasn’t usually one to share information about his own life unless he had to, but Magnus had been talking about himself for quite a while. At any other time, Alec would have written it off as Magnus being conceited, but this time that wasn’t the case. He was, for some reason, willingly sharing with Alec something that was very important to him. Alec couldn’t help but want to give Magnus something in return, especially since Magnus was currently going through turmoil. Nothing huge, of course, but just enough to let Magnus know he partially understood what he was going through.

“We had a cat,” Alec told Magnus, glancing down at his own feet as they walked. “Church. We got him when I was six, before Jace joined our family or my youngest brother was born. He went missing once. For a few days. My sister was so worried. I was never that close to him, though. We had him for eight years, until Max developed an allergy to cat fur when he was a pre-schooler. So we gave him to our aunt. Church never liked me very much. He didn’t really like anyone, except my sister. She was heartbroken when she found out he couldn’t live with us anymore. It hurt to see her so upset,” he sighed. “So… I don’t know exactly how you feel, but… yeah,” he finished dismally, wondering if anything he’d said had resonated with Magnus at all. Magnus would probably think he was just rambling.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Magnus replied, and Alec looked at him. Magnus was actually feeling compassion for him? 

“W-well, like I said, it affected my sister the most. And Max, because he thought it was his fault Church had to go away,” Alec said.

Magnus nodded. “Max. Whom Isabelle went to tutor this morning?”

“Yeah,” Alec confirmed. “I was meant to be there, too, like she mentioned. He’s struggling in school, so Mom asked us to help him, as our grades were always good. I think he might need more help than us, though. I’ve been researching, and I think he may be dyslexic.” 

“Have his teachers noticed any problems yet? Or your mother?” Magnus asked. 

“I don’t know about his teachers. Mom hasn’t, even though I have mentioned it to her, more than once. She’s usually focused on her job more than us. Dad, too,” Alec replied quietly. “Iz, Jace and I practically raised Max.” 

It was at this moment that Alec realised how much he was actually sharing with Magnus. When did a conversation about cats become about his family life?

Magnus must have sensed Alec’s realisation, because he didn’t ask any more questions. He simply nodded and continued to shake the little blue mouse. 

____

They found the Chairman in the park two blocks away, a tuft of tabby fur against the various green shades of the nature around him. As soon as he heard the mouse, he came running towards them, and Alec watched Magnus’ face light up with delight as Magnus picked his cat up with his free hand.

After a few moments, Magnus turned to him, any sort of disheartened expression gone from his face. “Well then, let’s head back and find that key. It’s already nearly three o’clock, and I’m hoping to reclaim the apartment as purely my own at some point today. And the Chairman’s, of course. And you can _finally_ leave me alone.”

Alec walked out of the park with him, feeling a strange rush of relief. He was genuinely happy that Magnus had found his pet. Alec didn’t know when he’d started to feel any sort of positive feeling towards Magnus. But, he supposed it was inevitable when they’d just shared personal things about their lives with each other. He was just glad Magnus didn’t look so defeated anymore. He wasn’t used to it.

“Oh, and by the way,” Magnus said to Alec as they walked down the street, holding the cat against his chest. “The Chairman would not find a better home than with me. I cannot help it if my neighbour forgets to close the front door. I’m not telepathically connected to her, just as you are not to my cat, which you so confidently proclaimed. Nor do I have her phone number, just as you do not have my cat’s.”

Ah, so _now_ Magnus was addressing what Alec had said. It seems that the Chairman had restored some sort of power in him to refuel his arguments. In a way, Alec was relieved. The lack of Magnus’ arrogance and mock had begun to make Alec feel a bit uneasy.

“I said I was sorry for saying that,” Alec murmured, looking down. 

“I am aware,” Magnus replied. “You still said it, regardless. I am simply informing you of how wrong you were, have always been, and will probably continue to be.”

“Well, thanks for that,” Alec said sarcastically, beginning to feel the dislike creeping back up his chest. Magnus Bane was a complete mystery to him. One moment, he was mocking and rude, the next he was quiet, vulnerable, almost compassionate, and the next he was back to being completely insufferable. Alec supposed that was normal. Besides, humans didn’t have only one emotion or one aspect of a personality. He’d just never really considered Magnus to be human. More like a being solely created to piss Alec off.

Whatever bonding he’d experienced with Magnus within the hour certainly hadn’t lasted long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my [beta](alberto-rosendbae.tumblr.com)!


	7. Hour Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec and Magnus return back to the loft. They receive a visitor and a phone call.

“ _ Never _ do that again,” Magnus said sternly, placing Chairman Meow down on the floor of the apartment. “You’ll be lucky to get any fish for the rest of the month,” he warned his cat, as the animal in question skulked into the kitchen. Magnus shot him a look, straightening up again.

Alec placed the toy mouse down on the nearest table, not sure what to say. Or even if he should say anything at all. At this point, he didn’t know where he stood with Magnus. Magnus hadn’t said much to him on the way back to the apartment after his insults to Alec. Magnus’ bad mood was in no way uncalled for, after temporarily losing his cat and Alec being rude to him about it. But outside they’d managed to have a conversation without losing it with each other. It had almost been nice. No teasing, no sly digs, no cruelty. For the first time, Alec had been able to stand being around Magnus. But that feeling had left as soon as it had appeared, because as soon as they’d found the Chairman, Magnus had reverted back to treating Alec as he had before, as a useless nuisance who was only good for making fun of. Alec didn’t know how to respond to it. Forget about whatever bonding they’d experienced and go back to hating each other’s guts? Alec didn’t have a problem with that. He’d despised Magnus for months, why stop now?

Except, he’d learned more about Magnus in these past few hours than he’d done the entire time he’d known him. And he still didn’t know much. He knew about his attachment to his pet, about where he’d lived in the past… that was about it. He’d seen the photographs in Magnus’ bedroom, but they hadn’t really told him anything. He couldn’t bring himself to ask Magnus about it, especially as he thought back to the silence he was greeted with when he had questioned Magnus about why he had changed locations so much in his life. Alec would have to be incredibly obnoxious to not realise there was more to Magnus than he’d previously thought. But, that didn’t mean he didn’t want to know. He had told Magnus a lot about himself in the past hour. Alec would have liked Magnus to do the same. Not that Magnus owed Alec his life story, but every time he made eye contact with Magnus he saw someone unidentifiable behind his gaze. He had a tugging urge to find out what it was, exactly.

But the fact that he and Magnus hadn’t had a completely awful last hour in no way meant he was happy to be spending time with the other man. He wanted nothing more than to go home, a feeling which had only strengthened as the hours had dragged on. He wasn’t used to being around someone he didn’t know well for such a long time, and the fact that it was Magnus just made it worse. He supposed the logical solution for the problem was to get to know Magnus, but it was obvious that right now, Magnus was not in the mood for storytelling. And if Magnus wasn’t going to reveal things about himself, Alec certainly wasn’t going to. Magnus would probably make fun of whatever he told him, Alec told himself with a slight lack of conviction. Or at least make him feel anxious about revealing it. Despite Magnus being compassionate about Alec’s tale of Church, who could know what he was really thinking. And how would he react if Alec ended up telling him something Magnus couldn’t relate to? Magnus had changed his attitude so much in the past hour that Alec had no idea what to think. He couldn’t even begin to predict any reaction Magnus would give.

“Well then, Alexander,” Magnus started, disrupting Alec’s thoughts and tugging him further into the room by the cuffs, “it’s probably about time we found this key once and for all and sent you on your way, don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” Alec nodded. Now the cat drama was over, they’d have nothing to distract them from finding the key and unshackling themselves from this prison. However, what Alec wanted most was to just sit down and rest. His exhaustion had not alleviated itself whatsoever throughout the last couple of hours. Oh, well. He could rest later.

It seemed they would not be looking for the key, though, as a shrill sound shot through Alec’s ears unpleasantly as the doorbell rang. For as elegant as the rest of Magnus’ apartment was, Alec hadn’t expected the doorbell to sound so ear-piercing and raucous. 

“It seems we have a visitor,” Magnus said, tugging Alec over to the receiver. He pressed the microphone button after a dramatic eye roll. “Who dares disturb the magnificent and beautiful Magnus Bane?” he asked in a bored tone. 

Alec raised his eyebrows, holding back a laugh. What sort of greeting was that?

“I wouldn’t say magnificent and beautiful, exactly,” came the crackling reply from the speaker. Alec thought he recognised the voice from somewhere, yet couldn’t pinpoint the owner.

Magnus let out a heavy sigh. “What do you want?”

A short chuckle came from the speaker. “Who shit in your glitter? I lost my phone.”

“And  _ what  _ does that have to do with me?” Magnus asked.

“I was at your party, Bane. Are you going to let me come in and look for it?”

Alec hadn’t seen any phone that wasn’t his own or Magnus’ (he assumed the phone with the sparkly case belonged to Magnus, anyway), and they had searched the apartment multiple times in their key search. It seemed a lot of things were disappearing off the face of the earth in this place. 

“Very well,” Magnus replied, pressing the button that allowed the guest into the building. 

“Who is it?” Alec asked as Magnus took his finger off the microphone. 

“A dear friend of mine,” Magnus answered, moving to open his door. “I’m sure you’ve met. I think he’s friends with your redhead.”

“She’s not  _ my _ redhead. She’s Jace’s girlfriend,” Alec corrected him. He still couldn’t work out who this ‘friend’ was who Magnus was referring to. He didn’t think he knew any of Clary’s friends except Simon. And he knew full well that Simon was currently residing in a hospital bed nursing a broken ankle. Unless Jace had been lying, in which case Alec would make sure that the blond’s prearranged death for leaving would be prolonged considerably.

Magnus stepped outside the threshold of his apartment as the mystery visitor made their way up the stairs, while Alec lingered in the doorway. 

“I haven’t seen your phone,” Magnus said as the person approached, and Alec peeked around the doorway. “And believe me, I’ve overturned this apartment more than once today.”

Alec had met Raphael Santiago only a couple of times, the first time being at one of Simon’s band’s gigs. Raphael had arrived with Simon, Clary and a guy named Stan. Alec wasn’t sure how they had all met, because he didn’t care enough to ask. Despite sitting together, Alec hadn’t spoken to Raphael. From what he could gather, Raphael was quite a serious and standoffish person, so it surprised Alec that he and Magnus were friends. Although, they weren’t acting very friendly to each other right now.

Raphael approached Magnus’ doorway, his eyes widening slightly as he looked at Alec. “If you have company I’m sure you’ve been distracted. I wasn’t aware you two were even friends. You certainly hid it well.”

Magnus scoffed, stepping back into the apartment. “We’re not.” He raised his left arm before Alec could protest, showing Raphael why the two of them had spent all day together.

Raphael’s eyes landed on the handcuffs and his face broke out into a grin, laughter escaping his lips. Alec hadn’t seen Raphael smile before, and based on the cause of this one, he wasn’t pleased to see it now. Alec tugged his and Magnus’ hands down quickly, a blush rising up his neck and through his cheeks.

Raphael leaned against the door frame, raising his eyebrows. “Hey, whatever you two like to do in the bedroom is none of my business.”

Alec closed his eyes in defeat, wishing the floor would swallow him up. “We didn’t do this. My brother and sister did. To make us talk.”

There was a moment of silence, before Raphael spoke again. “Mm, I think I remember, actually. You two didn’t look in any fit state to do much talking, let alone anything else. I don’t even know why I came. Parties are detestable.”

“You know exactly why you came,” Magnus told Raphael, earning a glare from Raphael that Alec couldn’t quite figure out. “And as riveting as this reminiscing about last night is, do you plan on looking for your phone?” Magnus asked, raising his free hand in a gesture to the rest of the apartment as a way to welcome Raphael in.

“I’d rather laugh at this some more, actually,” Raphael responded, a light smirk across his defined features. “I suppose I don’t need to ask where they found the handcuffs.”

Magnus chuckled, turned gracefully and went to sit down on the couch, Alec having no choice but to follow him. “You don’t. But if you do, I’ll be sure to explain to you in detail their previous use before this incident occurred.”

“You know what? I think I’ll pass,” Raphael stated to Alec’s relief, walking around the apartment as he looked for his phone. “So, you two decided you liked the arrangement and made the mutual decision to keep the handcuffs on?”

“We lost the key. Obviously,” Alec grumbled. “And how are you so sure your phone is here?” he asked, watching Raphael search. Alec was relieved to not have to be alone with Magnus anymore, but he was unhappy enough with Jace and Isabelle (and probably Clary and Simon, now) knowing about the handcuff situation. The more people who knew, the more people they could tell. Plus, it was obvious to Alec that Raphael was the type of person to constantly remind people of their embarrassing events. Maybe that’s what he had in common with Magnus.

“I’m not. But, this will rule out a possibility of its location,” Raphael replied, lifting up a cushion from one of Magnus’ chairs and checking underneath it. “And being here has allowed me to witness such a hilarious situation. Ragnor and Catarina will love it.”

These two names were unfamiliar to Alec, so he simply stayed quiet, watching the other men talk. Their dynamic was interesting - their friendship seemed to be based a lot on teasing and shallow insults, and yet Alec could sense a lot of care within their words.

“If you even utter a syllable to them about this, I’ll make it my _ personal  _ responsibility that they know about your little crush on Sheldon,” Magnus replied smugly.

“I don’t like him,” Raphael argued, pausing his search to glare at Magnus. “He’s an irritating geek who cares too much about the Avengers.”

“Santiago, I’ve seen the way you look at him,” Magnus countered. “You barely left his side during the party, and Isabelle has informed me you never miss a single one of his gigs.”

Alec frowned, trying to work out who Magnus and Raphael were talking about. He didn’t know anyone named Sheldon. In fact, right now the description Magnus was giving seemed closer to Clary’s best friend than anyone else.

“I do  _ not  _ like him,” Raphael repeated, almost seething. “Plus, Catarina and Ragnor haven’t even met him.”

“Nevertheless, they would be interested to hear that Raphael has a soft spot for someone who can quote, word for word, every Captain America movie,” Magnus told Raphael, pointedly ignoring Raphael’s repeated denial. “I think you should tell Stuart how you feel.”

Stuart? Hadn’t Magnus said Sheldon before?… Oh. They _ were _ talking about Clary’s best friend, Alec realised with shock. He had noticed Simon and Raphael talking to each other at the party, but would have never guessed they were close. They seemed to be complete opposites of each other. Simon was a complete nerd, he was annoyingly talkative and optimistic… everything that Raphael wasn’t, from what he knew about the man currently stood in Magnus’ living room. Anyway, Alec had been under the impression that Simon was interested in Isabelle, despite Alec’s sister having just entered a new relationship. A relationship with Maureen; Clary and Simon’s best friend, no less.

“Do you mean Simon Lewis?” Alec asked, wanting to be sure his conclusion had been correct.

“ _ Dios _ ,” Raphael said under his breath, looking away. Well, there was Alec’s answer.

Magnus looked at Alec. “You didn’t realise? I’ve been around Salmon only a handful of times myself, and even _ I _ picked up on it,” he said, before turning to Raphael. “You are in no way subtle.”

“I don’t think you have any right to lecture me on subtlety,” Raphael retaliated. “You’re the least subtle person I’ve ever had the displeasure to meet.” He moved his gaze to Alec. “Don’t you dare tell Simon about this, Grumpy Cat.”

Alec’s eyes shot to Magnus. “Seriously? You’ve got other people calling me that?”

“We agreed that it suits you so well, Alexander,” Magnus teased, smirking as he leant back against the couch cushions.

“Damn it,” Alec grumbled. He really needed to come up with his own nickname for Magnus that he could spread around to his siblings and friends. Right now, any possible nickname he came up with featured at least two expletives. 

“If you haven’t had access to your cell, I assume you haven’t heard about Samuel’s accident,” Magnus said, once again fixing his dark eyes on Raphael. 

Raphael met Magnus’ gaze, his features drawn together in worry. “What? What happened?” His voice had lost the calm, drifting tone and now had an edge of urgency had Alec hadn’t expected from him. 

“He tripped over at band practice. He’s fine,” Alec answered for Magnus.

“I can’t say I’m too surprised it happened, I commonly hear of him managing to get himself into some sort of trouble. Alexander’s dear brother drove he and Clary to the hospital,” Magnus continued, ignoring the glare he received from Alec at the use of his full name. “It’s a broken ankle, he’s not on his deathbed.”

Raphael visibly clenched his jaw. “You should watch what you say, or you’ll be the one on your deathbed.”

“That does  _ not  _ sound like “I don’t completely adore him” to me,” Magnus smirked, raising his eyebrows slightly, as if daring Raphael to respond with denial. 

“Do you ever shut up, Bane?” Raphael snapped, turning away to continue looking at his phone.

“He doesn’t,” Alec assured Raphael. 

Magnus ignored Alec. “I was under the impression you liked talkative people. Steven isn’t exactly quiet.” Alec was verging on impressed with how many names Magnus was coming up with for Simon. But he wasn’t surprised, after being on the receiving end of nicknames all day. 

Raphael answered Magnus with another glare as Alec watched on. Magnus’ friendship with Raphael was interesting to say the least. In a strange way, the way Magnus talked to Raphael was similar to the way he talked to Alec, except there was no heat behind it. It was like the two had an unspoken agreement to be rude to each other and interpret it as love. Alec wondered if they had always been like that, or if genuine dislike had developed into this unusual friendship.

“I’m surprised this apartment isn’t a bloodbath, Magnus,” Raphael said to the two men on the couch, getting down onto his knees to check under a chair. “You’re always telling me how much you dislike Grumpy Cat. In fact, you tell me so much that it gets quite unbearable to listen to.”

Alec glanced at Magnus. “Is there anyone you haven’t complained about me to?”

“Give me a couple of weeks, and  _ maybe _ I’ll think of someone,” Magnus replied, his usual mocking edge present in his voice.

“That doesn’t seem like a big ask, considering that at this rate, you’ll still be cuffed together in a couple of weeks,” Raphael stated, standing up with his newly found phone in his hand.

Alec was honestly getting tired of Raphael, despite his earlier feelings of being glad he was no longer alone with Magnus. 

“You have found your phone,” Alec mumbled. “So you can leave now.”

“Ah, you two want to be left alone?” Raphael smirked, calmly walking backwards towards the doorway.

“Get out,” Magnus said sharply, gesturing to the door.

After a couple more minutes of Magnus and Raphael bickering with each other, the latter eventually left the apartment, closing the door behind him.

“I didn’t know you knew him,” Alec stated, gesturing to the space by the door that Raphael had occupied a few moments earlier.

“I’ve known Raphael for years,” Magnus said, leaning back against the plush cushions. Alec expected Magnus to continue speaking, to maybe inform Alec of how he and Raphael knew each other. He didn’t, though, so Alec didn’t ask. 

“He’s… different,” Alec said slowly, rubbing the tips of his fingers together absentmindedly. 

Magnus looked at him, his eyebrows raised. “‘Different’? If I weren’t mistaken, I’d say it sounds like you have a crush.”

“No!” Alec blurted, a little too quickly, before frowning to himself. Why did he care whether Magnus thought Alec had a crush on Raphael? “What I mean is, he’s different to you… not who I thought you’d be friends with.”

“Oh?” Magnus’ eyebrows lost their height, and his gaze hardened slightly. “And who do you think would be the sort of person I’d be friends with?”

All Alec could do was shrug, breaking away from Magnus’ gaze. He didn’t really have an answer. Well, he did, but listing off adjectives such as ‘shallow’, ‘superficial’ and ‘narcissistic’ probably would not have improved the situation. 

The pair sat in silence for a few seconds.

“You don’t know me, Alec,” Magnus said, his tone firm. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“You don’t tell me anything,” Alec countered.

“So you decide to brand me with whatever twisted view you have of me? Just because we are unfortunately trapped together, does not mean I owe you any information about my life,” Magnus glared. 

“Well, it’s not like you’ve stopped yourself from judging me. At least I haven’t given you any brainless nicknames,” Alec replied, looking Magnus straight in the eye. “I just want to fucking go home.”

“Oh, cry me a river, Alexander,” Magnus rolled his eyes dramatically, before returning the harsh gaze. “You think I don’t want that? You think I don’t want to go about my day without being shackled to you? And excuse me, darling, but do you think you’ve been treating me like a saint these past few hours? When you were insulting my skills as a pet owner? When I took you into my room to look for the Chairman and you stood there gawping at my things and invading my privacy?”

“Maybe I wouldn’t have done that if you weren’t so fucking cryptic all the time,” Alec spat. “I’ve told you so much about my life, about Izzy and Jace and Max, and all you’ve told me about is your damn cat and that you didn’t always live in the States. Not that I want to get to know you, anyway. I know enough.”

“All you know is what you’ve assumed,” Magnus argued. “Just because I haven’t told you about myself, doesn’t mean I don’t tell anyone. You mean nothing to me, why would I tell you anything? It is not my fault if you’re too stubborn to realise that people are not entitled to tell you things they don’t want to tell you.”

Alec swallowed in defeat. He knew that Magnus was right. Just a short while earlier, he’d told himself everything Magnus had just said. And he had also promised himself that he wouldn’t be telling Magnus anything else about him, so why should Magnus be obliged to go against his wishes and talk to Alec?

“…Yeah. Sorry. I’ve just… told you a lot.” He didn’t know what else to say. He didn’t want to tell Magnus that he felt uneasy about the unequal levels of knowledge they had about each other. Alec didn’t know why he had told him so much. At the time it felt almost easy, but right now all it did was make him feel vulnerable.

Alec missed any sort of reply Magnus gave as he was lost in his thoughts, until the sound of his ringtone filled the room. He used his free hand to pull out his phone from his pocket, shooting a glare at Magnus before checking the caller ID. His sister’s name had flashed up on the screen. Alec would have preferred to take the call in private, but obviously that was an impossibility.

He held pressed the ‘receive’ button and held his phone to his ear. “Hi, Izzy. Is everything alright?”

“Hey, big brother, how’re you getting on?” Izzy’s reply came from the speaker as she ignored his question.

“Funnily enough, not great,” Alec told her, trying to keep the edge out of his voice. It wasn’t her fault she had to leave. “Are you done with tutoring Max?” he asked, his question full of hope.

“Not yet, that’s actually why I called. We finished his Math and Science tutoring but now we’re working on his History homework. You’re a bigger history nerd than me, and the internet’s down… you see where I’m going with this?”

Alec sighed, smiling fondly. “I don’t know _ that _ much about history, Izzy. You know English is my strongest subject.”

“You know more about it than me. Max wanted me to ask you.”

Alec smiled. “Is he there?”

Isabelle confirmed Max’s presence and there was a moment of silence as she passed the phone to the youngest Lightwood sibling. 

“Hey, Alec,” Max’s greeting came through the speaker.

“Hi, Max. You know, we have lots of books in the house that you could use,” Alec teased. “We won’t always be around to give you the answers.”

“Do you have any idea how long that would take?” Alec chuckled softly as he listened to Max’s reply. “Besides, what else am I supposed to do? I don’t know how people survived without the internet. Why aren’t you here, anyway? Izzy said you’re with your friend.”

‘Friend’. Right. Well, it wasn’t the worst thing Isabelle could have said. Alec paused a moment before speaking, trying to work out how to explain his situation to his brother. “Yeah. I’m a little busy right now.” That’d do. Alec leaned back in his seat, changing the subject. “What are the questions on?”

“The Sun King,” came Max’s reply, the hesitancy in his speech telling Alec that he was reading off a sheet of paper.

“The Sun King?” Alec asked, frowning slightly. “The French Monarchy, right? But I don’t know exactly who it is.”

“King Louis… there are letters here but I don’t know what they mean… X…I? Or is it a one?”

King Louis XIV,” Magnus said. 

Alec turned to look at Magnus, trying to hide his look of shock. “You know about this stuff?”

Magnus chuckled smugly. “I aced History, and the French Monarchy of the seventeenth century has always caught my interest. The King’s brother, Phillipe d’Orleans, sounded like a very fascinating man,” he said, pronouncing the King’s brother’s name with a flawless French accent.

“Right,” Alec dismissed, moving his attention back to his brother. “What’s the first question?”

Alec heard the sound of rustling paper as Max picked up the question sheet. “Where did the King move to build a palace in 1682?”

Focusing on the question, Alec went quiet, trying to think. There was no point, he knew he had no idea about the answer.

“Do you know or not?” Max said through the phone. Alec only hummed in response. He could guess, right? Maybe.

“What’s the question?” Magnus asked after Alec hadn’t said a word for over ten seconds.

“Where he built a palace. I’ll get it eventually,” Alec murmured. And he would. He didn’t need Magnus’ help. He could help his own brother with his homework, thank you very much.

“Or you could ask me,” Magnus suggested. “I know the answer.”

Alec gave in. “Fine. Max, I don’t know but my… friend…” he held back a cringe at the word, “is going to help you instead, alright?” 

After Max agreed, Alec passed the phone to Magnus. As Magnus gave Max the answer and helped him spell it out, Magnus’ voice changed. Up until that point, he’d still had a slight edge to his tone, probably due to the argument he’d had with Alec before the phone call. That was all gone now. 

It was evident to Alec that Magnus was used to talking to children. Not only had his tone changed, but his entire body language was altered despite the conversation only being over the phone. Everything about him became more welcoming, more open and laid-back. There was a permanent smile on Magnus’ face as he spoke to Max, and not like the sarcastic, mocking smiles he’d provided Alec with. This one was genuine. Alec asked himself who Magnus might have spoken to like this before. Could it be a brother Alec didn’t know about? A cousin, maybe? Alec doubted he would find out, because Magnus had made it clear he wanted to keep his past to himself. And that was fair enough. But Alec would have liked to know.

And no matter how hard he pushed the thoughts from his head, he would have also liked to know what else could make Magnus smile like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to my [beta](http://90s-shinee-aesthetic.tumblr.com/)!


	8. Hour Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus helps Max, and Alec gives into his exhaustion.

Magnus ended up helping Max with the entire worksheet. There had been no point passing the phone back to Alec after the first question had been answered, since it was fairly obvious to everyone that Alec wouldn’t be of much use. So, Alec just stayed quiet and listened to Magnus and Max interacting, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.

The way Max and Magnus seemed to be getting on was utterly endearing, if Alec was completely honest. People usually made the mistake of talking down to Max because he was young. In actual fact, Alec’s brother had an air of maturity that made him seem at least a couple years older than his real age of ten. If Alec really thought about it, he supposed it had something to do with Max having to grow up almost too fast. Alec would never, ever refer to his baby brother as a burden, but Max’s care had been often placed in his, Isabelle’s and Jace’s hands, especially over the last few years. Their parents’ focus on work had increased incredibly once Max had fully enrolled in school. Too much, in Alec’s opinion. It wasn’t like he could deny his brother care, and Alec was happy to look after him with his siblings. It just got a bit much, sometimes. 

Magnus was talking to Max like an equal, despite the latter’s age and the possible learning disability that Alec had mentioned. People who found out about Max’s problems with learning usually resulted in Max being unnecessarily babied. But listening to the tone of Magnus’ voice, and the sound of his soft laughter as Max no doubt unleashed his sarcastic humour on him, warmed Alec’s heart in strange, indescribable ways. Which was a ridiculous reaction, because all Magnus was doing was not being a jerk. Anyone could not be a jerk. It was expected of people to not be jerks. 

Magnus’ dark eyes met Alec’s hazel ones as he talked to Max, and Alec broke eye contact, instead moving his gaze down to their cuffed hands lying on the leather couch between them. There was no denying it, no matter how much the handcuff situation continued to annoy Alec, he had become used to it over the last couple of hours. He was no longer filled with an intense despair when his eyes landed on the metal bands, he simply accepted it. Finding the key had been pushed at least a few spaces back in his mind. Which was probably a bad sign, because there was no way Alec would let himself become accustomed to this. This would not be a new and quirky part of his life. 

But, even while trying to focus on this problem completely, Alec struggled to push away his other thoughts. Like the fact that he desperately needed a shower. Like the fact that he was still goddamn exhausted, and felt like he could fall asleep at any moment. Which would probably be the case if he continued listening to Magnus’ pleasant and soothing tone as he talked to Max. Alec had never realised what an appealing voice Magnus had. Maybe he’d noticed it once or twice, maybe three times, but he was usually too busy being angry and rolling his eyes to pay attention. So, what? Magnus had a nice voice. He was… good-looking. That didn’t have any bearing at all on how Alec felt about him, and Alec refused to consider the notion.

Alec’s thoughts were broken as he registered Magnus passing the phone back to him. How did that make sense? He was thinking about Magnus’ voice, and yet didn’t even realise when Magnus had stopped speaking? 

He took the phone in his free hand, glancing at the screen and seeing that Max was still on the line.

“Hey, Max,” he smiled after holding the phone to his ear. “Did Magnus manage to help you?”

“Yeah, he knows so much,” Max replied, sounding grateful for Magnus’ aid. “I think he should tutor me instead. You and Izzy would probably learn a lot from him, too.”

“Really?” Alec scoffed playfully. “Even science?”

“Well, obviously not,” Max said quickly, as if he hadn’t even paused to think. “Izzy’s the best at that. It’d help _you_ , though.”

If coming from anyone other than his baby brother, Alec would have probably taken offence to that. But it was true. “You’re right.”

“Of course I am.”

Alec chuckled. “Anyway, you’d better get back to work.” He smiled as he heard Max’s groan through the speaker. 

“Fine,” came the reluctant response. “See you later, Alec.”

“Bye, Max,” Alec replied, before bringing the phone away from his ear and ending the call. “He likes you,” he told Magnus as he placed his phone back in his pocket.

“Of course he does, what’s not to like?”

Alec raised his eyebrows slightly in incredulity, before shifting his attention to the Chairman, who had just jumped up onto the cushion next to him. “You and my brother are quite similar,” he told Magnus. “Up to your eyes in sarcasm, for one thing,” he said, reaching out slightly to pet the Chairman with a small smile on his face.

Magnus let out a short burst of laughter, watching as the Chairman settled in Alec’s lap. He was right about the cat taking a fast liking to Alec. “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, Alexander. Besides, if it weren’t for me, you’d still be stumbling over your words, pretending to know the answer to his homework questions,” Magnus replied, and Alec could sense Magnus’ smirk without having to look at him. “You were being slightly useless.”

Alec almost cringed, halting his hand from stroking the cat. That struck a nerve. He had heard those words enough from his parents. Words to that effect, anyway. That he was not helpful enough, not selfless enough, not good enough. When his grades had slipped on his report card shortly after he and his siblings began tutoring Max. When he’d forgotten, once, to pick Max up from school. 

Some time the previous year, he had been out until five in the morning, looking for Izzy after she had continually failed to answer her phone. He returned home unsuccessful and secluded himself to his room, trying to tell himself that her phone was dead and she was staying with a friend. Jace let her in the house at dawn, and their parents had scolded Alec for not having her friends’ contact numbers, or not knowing where she had gone for the night. And maybe Alec should have known, but he had done the best he could. He’d been out in the freezing cold searching. Knocking on the doors of Isabelle’s friends, looking around clubs he knew she frequented. But despite his siblings sticking up for him, Robert and Maryse Lightwood were a brick wall. In their eyes, Alec would never be enough.

It took Alec a moment to realise he hadn’t responded to Magnus’ comment. “I do my best,” he murmured simply, his voice sounding hollow to his own ears. He looked down at the Chairman. For no real reason. It was just somewhere to look that wasn’t at Magnus.

The room was quiet.

“He’s a clever kid,” Magnus said after a moment. He’d probably noticed the way Alec had curled in on himself. “It’s evident that the tutoring has been helpful.”

“He has always been clever,” Alec countered, meeting the other man’s eyes for a moment. “At least Isabelle can help him with his scientific skills. All I do is help him with his English work. That’s easy. Anyone can do that.” He stopped talking, moving his left hand to run his fingertips in minuscule movements over the fabric of his jeans. Here he was, revealing more about himself to Magnus, whether he wanted to or not. He’d told himself he wouldn’t say anything else, out of spite after Magnus refused to divulge information in return. But he couldn’t help it, something about Magnus just made Alec want to keep talking.

“Literacy and English skills are different to mathematics. That doesn’t mean they’re easier,” Magnus said. “In fact, some would argue Math is easier. There are rules and formula, and once they’re learnt, they can be applied to any given equation. Everything about English requires creativity, knowing how to concoct moods and atmospheres out of word choice. How to convey emotion and meaning and make people _feel_. And spelling. Spelling is complicated, especially in the English language. There are rules that don’t make sense and aren’t applicable for certain words. Letters have different sounds depending on where they’re placed. A child has to be taught these things. Being in an English speaking community may seem to downplay this, because yes, anyone who knows English can help someone learn to write. But not everyone can teach someone how to write _well_. My aunt taught me English when I came to the States. She was an incredible writer and an even better speaker. She taught me how to use words to my advantage, how to say nothing by saying everything, and how to say everything by saying nothing. I wouldn’t have become the amazing linguist I am today without her. Just like your brother won’t become as good as he can be without you. Your sister has her strengths, as you have yours. Neither is more valuable than the other, but together, they’re indescribably powerful.”

Alec sat in a stunned silence, taking in Magnus’ words. That was so… undeniably _kind_. That was the kindest thing Magnus had ever said to him. There had not been even a hint of malice behind it, not a single hard edge or underlying negative emotion. Just… tenderness. 

He had to ask. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

Alec looked at Magnus, to see the other man looking back at him. There was something unreadable in his eyes, and Alec aimed to not stare has he tried to work it out. “I may not be your biggest fan, Alec, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy watching you, _anyone_ , doubting themselves so fully.”

A small scoff escaped Alec. “I didn’t think you cared,” he mumbled, moving his hand to run his fingers over the Chairman’s back again.

“I’m not some sort of sadist, Alexander,” Magnus replied. “It’s enjoyable making fun of you and pissing you off. But I know not to be horrible about something that you’re genuinely insecure about. Apart from anything else, I do not like the idea of having to be around you if you’re sulking. It’d be incredibly annoying.”

Alec nodded slowly as he went along with it, but he could still sense the sympathy behind Magnus’ words. “The feeling’s mutual,” he sighed, leaning further back in his seat and closing his eyes. He felt the Chairman stand up and heard him land on the floor. The cat had probably had enough of being petted. Not that Alec would have kept it up for much longer. He really was completely worn out. “Good,” he heard Magnus reply.

Alec could have honestly fallen asleep right then and there. The leather couch wasn’t the most comfortable place he would have liked; the top edge of the cushion dug uncomfortably into the back of his neck as he laid his head against the back of the couch, and his long legs were spread out awkwardly under the coffee table. The couch itself was long, and probably would fit his entire body lengthways, but Alec wouldn’t dream of actually following through with his idea and lying down on it. Treating the couch like his own property would be inappropriate enough if he and Magnus were friends, never mind… whatever this was. 

Alec felt himself drifting off, when…

“I would suggest looking for the key again, but you look like you’re about to pass out.” Magnus’ voice jolted Alec awake and he opened his eyes, holding back a groan. He’d been so close to getting some rest.

“I’m exhausted, Magnus,” he grumbled. “I’d just, for once, like to do nothing for a while.” He relaxed again, but kept his eyes open. He didn’t want to just fall asleep on Magnus’ couch. That’d be worse than lying on it, probably. 

“That’s fine by me,” Magnus replied, and reached over to grab the remote control for the television, sitting back next to Alec and switching it on. Alec was grateful for it. Like himself, he was sure that Magnus didn’t want to sit in an awkward silence. But he also definitely did not feel like talking. Watching a bit of mindless afternoon television was a good compromise, he thought.

Alec hadn’t paid attention to the channel Magnus had chosen to watch, but the programme seemed to have something to do with fashion and looked to be cheaply filmed. He was in no way surprised; it was pretty much what he’d expect Magnus to watch. He tried to focus on the show the best he could, but his lack of interest paired with his tiredness resulted in his eyelids drooping. He fought to keep himself awake and sat up straighter on the couch. However, he always ended up slumping back into his original position. Eventually, as he sank down against the back of the couch for the umpteenth time, he accepted the situation and gave up. Magnus didn’t seem to care about the position Alec had assumed next to him. It’d be fine. Alec was more than capable of keeping himself awake.

___

 

The next thing Alec knew, he was waking up. He could immediately tell that he was still on the couch, sunk into the cushions. His ears detected the faint buzz of the television as he regained consciousness, but his eyes remained closed as he realised that something was different. His cheek was against something that very much did not feel like a couch cushion. There was something about this object that could be described as ‘harder’, but that wasn’t the right word. ‘Harder’ would imply that Alec was not comfortable, and he was, very much so. Firmer? Maybe. …Muscular? Bingo.

Alec quickly put two and two together, his eyes flying open. Sure enough, his gaze was met with the fabric of Magnus’ shirt underneath him and his fear was confirmed. He had fucking fallen asleep on Magnus. Using Magnus as a fucking pillow. This was _exactly_ why he should have kept himself awake. 

He didn’t want to sit up. He didn’t want to let Magnus know he was awake, because then would come the teasing and laughing. The longer Magnus thought he was asleep, the longer Alec would be able to put that off. 

But, it wasn’t _his_ fault. Not really. It wasn’t Magnus’, either. It was just… no one’s. Maybe it was his fault for falling asleep, but the entire point of being asleep was that he was unconscious. He couldn’t stop his body from shifting and falling onto Magnus’. It wasn’t like he was goddamn cuddled up to him. It was just a head on a shoulder. It was fine.

That’s what Alec repeated over and over in his head as he slowly sat up, waiting to hear some sort of remark from the man next to him. Nothing came. Magnus stayed perfectly still. Maybe he was just ignoring what had happened and wasn’t going to make a comment. Apart from a slight unintentional invasion of personal space, Alec hadn’t really done anything wrong. Magnus could have pushed him off if he’d wanted to.

Alec’s eyes flashed up to Magnus’ face, and he quickly realised why Magnus hadn’t reacted to Alec waking up. It seemed that Magnus was not awake himself. So, it hadn’t just been Alec who had been exhausted. It was just that one person had hidden it better. Alec became filled with hope that this meant Magnus had fallen asleep before Alec had leaned on him.

Magnus’ head was lulled slightly to the opposite side of Alec, the green flecks of glitter over his closed eyes sparkling in the sunlight gleaming through the windows of the loft. The radiant emerald of the eyeshadow and the charcoal shade of the eyeliner contrasted beautifully, and Alec found himself looking a little too closely. He felt like he was crossing some sort of line, it wasn’t usually okay to stare at people, but Alec couldn’t look away.

Alec took in the side of Magnus’ face that was visible to him, roaming his eyes over the man’s features. Magnus looked different to when he was awake. Calmer. And people were usually calm when they were asleep, of course, but with Magnus it actually _meant_ something. There was something about Magnus that was always so _busy_ to Alec, even when he was just sitting and eating breakfast, or watching TV. As if he either wanted to be occupying himself, or occupying his thoughts. He just… didn’t seem to relax, even when, by anyone else’s standards, he was. Alec couldn’t make much sense of it, but whatever it was, right now it was the opposite. Despite Magnus’ glamorous attire and dazzling make up, everything else about him was quiet in that moment. Somehow vulnerable. Alec had seen Magnus vulnerable before, when they had been out searching for the Chairman. This was a different vulnerability. Not a stressed, unnerved vulnerability, but a tranquil one. The closest word Alec could think of to describe it was ‘human’, and he scolded himself for being so philosophical. 

When Alec came out of his thoughts, he realised his gaze had shifted to Magnus’ lips. He immediately looked away before he could even begin to start philosophically thinking about Magnus’ fucking mouth. That was a line he refused to cross, even in his own mind.

He sat up straight against the couch, sighing exasperatedly as he brought his hand up, planning to run it through his hair. He didn’t get it very far though, as he realised he’d lifted up his cuffed hand and brought Magnus’ with it. He would have thought he’d be used to this enough by now to not make that mistake. 

The movement of Magnus’ hand must have woken the other man up, as Magnus shifted next to Alec, slowly lifting his head. Alec put their hands down again, watching as Magnus woke. “Sorry,” he murmured, not sure if Magnus was even awake enough to register his apology. But it was just common courtesy to apologise after waking someone up. 

Magnus only hummed in response, blinking as he glanced towards Alec. “How long have you been awake?” he asked, moving his eyes to the television.

Shit. So Magnus had definitely fallen asleep after Alec had. “A few minutes,” Alec answered. He thought that was right. “…Sorry I fell asleep. I said I was tired.”

Magnus gave a noncommittal shrug, keeping his eyes on the screen. “I know. That’s alright. I obviously wasn’t successful in staying awake, either. Although, this couch isn’t the most comfortable place to fall asleep.”

Alec nodded, deciding to bite the bullet. “When did you fall asleep?”

“Shortly after you, I suppose,” Magnus said. “I wasn’t sure if you were asleep. You weren’t moving and your eyes were closed, so I assumed you were.”

That sounded like Magnus was oblivious to what Alec had done. Or he was choosing not to comment on it. Either way, Alec was incredibly grateful. 

“Right.” 

Alec was able to relax again after that. His faded anxiety allowed him to pay attention to the television instead of his thoughts, and he and Magnus resumed their activity of watching whatever fashion show Magnus had switched onto. But being able to relax meant that once again, Alec was feeling the effects of his exhaustion. But he would have to suck it up. He would not fall asleep again.

—

“Get up, Alec.”

Alec’s eyes snapped open, and he came face to face with Magnus. For fuck’s sake. Alec made some sort of unintelligible grumble that even he didn’t know the meaning of, and avoided eye contact with Magnus as he sat up. Oh, well. At least this time he’d managed to keep to his side of the couch.

“We will not continue like this,” Magnus told him, switching off the television.

“Sorry,” Alec mumbled. It was the only reply he could think of. Except… “Do you have any coffee?”

“If I did, I would have resorted to that a long time ago,” Magnus replied, sighing. “If we don’t get some proper rest, then this will carry on for hours. I really should buy a new couch. This one’s comfort level has plummeted over the last couple of years.”

“It’s fine,” Alec said, wondering what Magnus meant by ‘proper rest’. He was resting just fine on the couch before being woken up. 

“Alexander, if we’re going to sleep, we may as well be actually relaxed, and not sprawled awkwardly on the couch.” With that, he stood up, tugging Alec’s arm with the handcuffs. “Come on, we’re going to bed.”

Alec almost choked on his own saliva. “What?”

Magnus rolled his eyes. “I want to sleep. You want to sleep. We’ll get a better sleep there than we will here, and hopefully miss out on any back pain later from these insufferable cushions. So get up.”

“O-okay.” Alec was powerless to deny Magnus. He knew he was right. And he would much rather be sleeping in on a mattress than on a couch. But it was _Magnus’_ bed. He’d be next to him. After waking up almost on top of him before, Alec didn’t trust himself not to do a similar thing later on. And it’d be worse in bed. Much, much worse.

Before Alec knew it, Magnus had led him into the bedroom. “Try not to gawk at my possessions this time,” Magnus told him as they approached the bed. “We’re here to sleep. Once that’s done, you’ll be straight out of this room.”

“I get it, Magnus,” Alec replied, slightly miffed that Magnus was bringing that up again. Alec deserved it, but he’d said sorry, and he wasn’t planning on invading Magnus’ privacy like that again. 

Magnus switched off the light and sat on the bed. The curtains were open, and yet the sun was already beginning to go down due to the early month of the year. The twilight hour casted a dim light over the room, giving everything a slight blue hue. Magnus shuffled over to the right side of the bed to let Alec on. Alec got onto the bed, unable to help the small smile that made its way onto his face when he realised just how comfy this bed was. A million times better than the couch. The red duvet was soft and silky, and the pillows looked just as appealing. Alec couldn’t wait to lay his head on them.

Magnus didn’t make any move to pull back the covers, thank God. He simply lay down on top of the bed, resting his head against the pillow and closing his eyes. Alec did the same, his and Magnus’ connected hands lying between them. Alec tried his hardest to relax, but something about this situation ignited nerves in the pit of Alec’s stomach. He tried his best to ignore them and he let his muscles relax into the mattress. After the day he’d had so far, he fucking deserved some sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I was away from writing for a while but I'm trying to get back into it. I hope you enjoy this update!


	9. Hour Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After finally managing to get some proper rest, Magnus introduces Alec to his evening routine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoy this update! Hour seven has been omitted since Alec and Magnus slept through it.

Alec stirred an hour later, nuzzling his face into his pillow as he woke. Wait, this didn’t feel like his own pillow. This was softer than any pillow he’d ever had. The sheets, too, he thought as he ran his fingers over them gently. This wasn’t his bed. 

All at once, everything came flooding back to him and Alec realised where he was. He opened his eyes, looking around Magnus’ dark room. They hadn’t closed the curtains before they went to sleep, but the early month of the year meant the sun had almost completely set, leaving the surroundings in a tinted twilight. 

Alec turned his head back towards Magnus, and he was met with a view of black hair. Alec’s breath caught in this throat as he realised just how close Magnus was to him. He and Magnus were facing towards each other, their bodies barely an inch apart, Magnus’ head practically tucked under Alec’s chin. Magnus’ right arm was thrown across Alec’s waist, his left still attached to Alec’s right arm by the handcuffs, in the small gap between their bodies. Alec’s eyes widened as he looked at Magnus’ arm, and his heart sputtered in his chest uncomfortably. He thought back to before he’d gotten onto the bed, telling himself that he wouldn’t repeat what had happened on the couch. Technically, this time, it looked like Magnus was the one who had closed the distance between them. Alec didn’t do this. 

He started to move back slightly, not wanting to wake Magnus up and realise the situation. But, as he moved, Magnus moved with him. The other man tightened his arm around Alec’s waist, making a small sound in the back of his throat as he nuzzled further against Alec’s chest.

Alec thought about trying to pull away again, but stopped. He would never say that this was _nice_ , it was just… different. Isabelle and Max used to subject to night terrors when they were young, and Alec had sometimes offered the other side of his bed to them so that they would feel protected. But apart from that, he’d never shared a bed with anyone. Ever. Alec swallowed, his heart beating so strongly that he wouldn’t be surprised if he’d woken Magnus up. He had no fucking idea what was going on. He didn’t know why he was having such a strong reaction. It was just… unexpected. That was it. It was unexpected and Alec wasn’t used to anything like this with anyone. Not that it meant anything. They had both been asleep, it wasn’t as if this were a conscious effort. He had probably just gravitated toward Magnus, for the body heat, or something. His opinion of Magnus was irrelevant.

He was sure that Magnus was still asleep. Alec was certain that Magnus would have never cuddled Alec so tightly if he’d been awake. Hell, he would have definitely moved away from him completely. Alec fought the niggling thought in the back of his head that told him that this wasn’t so bad. That this wasn’t terrible. Magnus was warm, and the weight of his body against Alec’s was strangely comforting. His hair tickled Alec’s chin, but it wasn’t annoying. Alec wasn’t sure what it was.

Alec sighed softly, giving into the situation and closing his eyes again. If he were completely honest with himself, he didn’t mind this. Not enough to move. There was plenty of time to move. They’d both move when Magnus woke up.

Despite trying to relax, the strong beating of Alec’s heart in his chest wasn’t letting up. He knew that part of it was down to nerves; he’d never had any sort of experience like this before. He’d feel like this no matter who it was. 

Alec’s eyes opened again as Magnus shifted in his arms, quickly closing them again as Magnus started to pull away. Okay, so he was definitely awake now. 

He felt Magnus lean up and Alec kept eyes closed, willing himself to keep as still as he could. He only let out his breath when he no longer felt Magnus’ presence against him, the sensation of the bed dipping slightly a few inches away telling Alec that Magnus had relaxed back onto the mattress. Magnus had definitely been moving carefully, as though he hadn’t wanted to wake Alec. Probably to avoid any awkwardness, although Alec would never think to describe Magnus as an awkward person. Alec was pretty sure that he himself already owned that title.

With an annoying difficulty, Alec managed to calm his pulsing heart and he opened his eyes after a couple of minutes, pausing for a moment before rolling over to face Magnus. The other man was facing the ceiling, his emerald eyeshadow shimmering over his closed lids. His make-up still looked as flawless as ever, having stayed in place during the nap. Alec watched him for a moment, but he knew that Magnus wasn’t asleep. Any moment he could snap his eyes open and look at Alec. So Alec looked away, aiming to sit up against the wooden headboard slightly as a subtle way to indicate to Magnus that he was awake.

Alec glanced over at Magnus as he sat up slowly, seeing that Magnus’ eyes had remained closed. Either he had somehow fallen back to sleep in the last few seconds, or he couldn’t be bothered to open his eyes. Alec dragged his eyes away from the other man and absentmindedly looked around the room. His eyes landed on the photographs he had noticed last time he’d been in Magnus’ room, but didn’t try to observe them too closely. Magnus had made sure to let him know how little he had appreciated Alec doing that. What was he meant to do? Just sit here until Magnus decided to reveal that he was, in fact, conscious? 

Alec was about to voice that he knew Magnus was awake, when Magnus opened his eyes, his gaze meeting Alec’s as he looked up at him. The moment their eyes met, Alec felt an unusual blush begin to rise up his chest, and his eyes darted away to focus on an ambiguous statue in the corner of the room. which was strange, Usually took more than that to have such an affect on Alec. _Prolonged_ eye-contact, at least, with a snarky innuendo thrown in. Which was normal, right? It was just embarrassment. This felt different, and yet had a strangely familiar sense that Alec couldn’t quite put his finger on. It wasn’t like anything had changed. Not really. They’d just slept together. _Slept_ together. That was it.

“Well, I don’t know about you,” Magnus began as Alec felt him shift to lean up, “but that nap has certainly improved this situation. For one, I no longer feel like I’m about to pass out from exhaustion.”

Huh. If Magnus had really been about to pass out before they had started their nap, he had certainly hidden it better than Alec.

“Yeah, me too,” Alec replied, for lack of a better response. He moved his eyes back to Magnus once he was sure he had his blush under control. Magnus wasn’t sitting that close to him; their cuffed hands were resting next to each other on the mattress, a couple of inches between their fingers. He moved his eyes over the room once again, and they landed on the clock on Magnus’ wall. “It’s already six o’clock. I can’t believe we’ve spent the whole day together. Not that time has flown.”

“Time only tends to fly when you’re having fun,” Magnus shrugged. “Although, I usually manage to have fun when handcuffs are involved.”

Alec had grown incredibly accustomed to rolling his eyes at Magnus over the past day, and this was no exception. He ignored the way felt his face heat up, hoping that the dim light of the room was enough to cover any colour change over his features. “What now, then?” he asked, wanting to change the subject completely. Maybe they could find the key now.

Alec watched as Magnus’ gaze moved to the clock. “I have a schedule for this time of day. I’d rather not alter it tonight.”

A schedule? To Alec, Magnus hadn’t seemed like the type of person to keep to plans or schedules. He seemed more ‘go with the flow’. “What is it? Dinner?”

Magnus shook his head. “I work out for an hour, then shower, then eat.”

Alec’s heart almost skipped a beat. “No.”

“Alec, I told you at the start of the day that you being here makes no difference to how I plan to go about my day,” Magnus said. 

“You think I haven’t had to change my plans?” Alec asked. “I haven’t even been able to shower.” 

Magnus raised his eyebrows. “You didn’t ask.”

“You seriously would have let me use your shower?” Alec scoffed. “And I’d rather not shower while in the same room as someone I barely know.”

“I’d rather you use my shower than smell foul,” Magnus replied. 

Alec frowned. “I don’t smell that bad.” His shirt was a little grimy, sure, but he didn’t _smell_. 

“True, but you will eventually, and God knows how long we’ll be stuck like this,” Magnus responded, raising his cuffed hand as an indication to what he was talking about. “Besides, I wouldn’t look. Unless you asked me to,” he continued, his teasing tone dripping with sarcasm. He obviously wasn’t being serious. At least, Alec thought he wasn’t.

“Whatever,” Alec grumbled. “You’re not working out. What am I meant to do, just stand there and wait?”

“Don’t you work out?” Magnus asked, and Alec ignored the way Magnus seemed to run his eyes over Alec’s body.

“Yeah,” he said. “At a gym. Not in other people’s homes.”

“I fail to see much of a difference,” Magnus said.

“There is a big difference,” Alec countered. “Believe me.”

The edges of Magnus’ lips twitched into a small smirk. “Are you afraid your strength won’t match up to mine? I am pretty skilled at working out, but I’m sure you aren’t _that_ terrible.” 

Alec scoffed at the idea. “You may outshine me in social situations and the ability to make outfits as extravagant as possible, but I am confident in my weight-lifting skills.”

“I don’t believe you, Alexander. How about you prove me wrong?”

“Magnus. As much as I love proving you wrong, this tactic isn’t going to work. We’re not working out.”

“You may not be working out, however you can’t stop me,” Magnus sang, shifting to move to the edge of the bed. The cuffs tugged Alec’s wrist as he watched Magnus incredulously. 

“What if I refuse to let you move from this bed?” Alec asked.

“As intriguing as that idea is,” Magnus replied with a teasing edge to his voice, “I think you underestimate how strong I am.”

Alec raised his eyebrows. Magnus might be muscular, however he was still overall lither than Alec. Alec had been working out since he was fourteen. He doubted Magnus would be strong enough to physically remove Alec from the bed, and Alec was not going to make it easy for him if it came to it.

Magnus must have read Alec’s mind, because the next thing he did was laugh. “I’m not actually going to pull you off the bed. Although I’m sure I would be capable, I have more dignity than that.”

“I didn’t think you were going to do it,” Alec replied. He wasn’t _sure_ Magnus was going to, anyway.

“How about this, Alexander,” Magnus started, “You let me work out, and in return I let you shower. If you don’t let me work out, a shower is out of the question.”

“You said you’d rather I showered anyway,” Alec said.

“And I’m sure you would, too. However, I could live with it if I had to.”

Alec went quiet for a moment as he thought about the proposed blackmail. As much as he didn’t want to have to stand around as Magnus worked out, he didn’t want to have to go without a shower even longer. He would have to get over himself and accept the deal.

“Fine.” Alec held back a sigh.

Magnus smiled. “Good.” He tugged Alec’s wrist gently. “Come on, then.”

Alec resisted the urge to burrow under the duvet never to resurface, and followed Magnus off the bed. Magnus didn’t lead him out of he bedroom, though. Instead, Alec soon found himself in front of Magnus’ wardrobe. Ah, of course. Magnus wouldn’t exactly be working out in his normal attire. Great. Not only was Alec going to watch Magnus work out, he was also going to watch him change. Well… not watch. But he’d be present when it happened. 

Magnus picked out the most glittery pair of sweats Alec had ever seen, before closing the wardrobe door. Alec frowned, not connecting two and two to ether as he looked at the single item of clothing. “Where’s your work out shirt?”

Magnus chuckled. “The great thing about working out at home, is there is no one to complain about me not wearing a shirt.”

Fuck. “I’m here. I’m complaining.” Alec wondered if his words sounded as weirdly insincere to Magnus as they did to himself. 

“Why would I want to get another shirt sweaty when I have the option not to?” Magnus replied.

Alec couldn’t argue with that. Not until he looked down at their handcuffs, and realised the logistical problem that Magnus would have while removing his shirt. “You won’t be able to get your sleeve out of the cuff,” Alec pointed out. “Not without having to cut through the fabric.”

Magnus seemed to pause for a moment, before shrugging. “I’ve been meaning to redesign this shirt for a while, anyway. I can just sew it up, maybe add a few accents.”

Alec wouldn’t have expected Magnus to be so nonchalant about having to destroy one of his clothing items. Although, he did expect Magnus to be the type to modify his clothes. He sighed in defeat. “Okay.”

____

A few minutes later, Magnus had led Alec out of the bedroom and into the living room. He walked Alec over to one of the larger cupboards in the corner of the room and swung the doors open. Alec peered inside with a hue amount of attention, not wanting to give any once of thought to the now shirtless man next to him. He had looked away as Magnus had got changed, continuing to avert his eyes as they had left the bedroom. Maybe he had stolen a glance or two, but that was nothing. On the one occasion he caught Magnus’ eye, he thought he saw a smirk on the other man’s face. He could have been mistaken, though.

“Wow, you’ve got a lot of equipment,” Alec noted as he looked at the cupboard’s contents.

“I take working out seriously,” Magnus replied.

Alec had already assumed that to be the case after trying and failing not to notice the other man’s body; he didn’t need it to be confirmed. “So… what are you going to do first?”

“I’ll start with the 30kg dumbbells, then move up,” Magnus told him. “Are you _sure_ you don’t want to join me?”

“I’m sure,” Alec mumbled. Working out in front of Magnus Bane was not something he ever planned to do.

For the next fifteen minutes, Alec observed Magnus lifting the weights in a steady rhythm with both arms. His own hand was being lifted as Magnus lifted the weight in his left hand. At first it had been a bit annoying, but Alec had got used to it after a few minutes. Now, most of his focus had moved to the tension he felt, even through the cuffs, as Magnus’ muscles contracted when he lifted the metal weights. It was strange to feel the effects of someone else working out, but it was also oddly fascinating. 

Magnus wasn’t saying a lot, for once. He was obviously putting most of his effort into lifting the weights. Magnus hadn’t yet broken a sweat, which told Alec that these weights were not a huge problem for him. He had already upped the weight twice since he started, and Alec wondered just how heavy Magnus could take.

Alec didn’t really know what to do except stand there. In a way, it would have been less awkward for Alec to have started working out, too. At least then he wouldn’t be stationary, simply watching Magnus’ actions. But somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to grab a weight.

“How much can you lift?” Magnus asked suddenly as he looked out the window.

“Probably more than you,” Alec said in response, not wanting to give an actual weight incase Magnus could easily beat it. 

Magnus laughed softly. “I doubt that. You underestimate my strength.”

Alec scoffed. “Alright, we’ll say it at the same time.”

Magnus nodded, glancing at Alec. “Okay.”

“Three, two, one.”

The two men became silent, and Alec let out a short laugh. “Damn it.”

“‘Well played’ to both of us, I think, Alexander,” Magnus smirked.

“Or neither of us,” Alec said.

“That too.”

____

Alec wasn’t sure exactly when it had started, but having nothing else to do, he had taken to trying to pull Magnus’ arm down as the other man lifted his weights. It had started out subtle at first, to give Magnus just enough extra weight to think he was just getting tired. However, over the last couple of minutes, he had been putting a lot more effort into it. Magnus had obviously noticed, and was now holding back a smile as he tried to match the added strength in resistance. 

There was nothing malicious about Alec’s attempt to weigh Magnus’ arm down, funnily enough. Just a few hours ago, Alec would have tried with all his might to stop Magnus from being able to lift. However, this was something playful. Maybe Magnus knew it from spotting the smile Alec knew he was sporting on his face, or the way Alec would huff in amusement when Magnus managed to successfully lift the weight. Whatever it was, it soon turned into a game, ending with Alec almost hanging off Magnus’ arm as he desperately tried to keep Magnus’ hand down.

“You’re right, I think I did underestimate your strength,” Alec admitted with a small smile once he had finally stopped trying to sabotage the other man’s efforts. “That was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.”

“You learn something new every day, Alexander,” Magnus responded.

Alec nodded. Today, in particular, he had learned a lot of things. The newest thing being that Magnus’ address of ‘Alexander’ no longer made Alec want to put his own head through a wall. He didn’t pinpoint exactly when the name had ceased being such a problem. All he knew was that now, the name filled him with something other than hatred. Not appreciation exactly, more like… comfort. Or something along those lines. Maybe the way Magnus was saying the name had changed. Alec no longer noticed a scathing edge to Magnus’ tone. What he thought he could pick up, although of course, he could be wrong, was a hint of fondness. A hint that, once again, Alec couldn’t pinpoint the exact time of arrival. 

Apparently Alec had been lost in his thoughts for longer than he’d noticed, because when he came back to reality, Magnus was putting his weight down and picking up another. Alec heard a small grunt escape Magnus’ lips, telling him that this was probably the heaviest one Magnus owned.

Magnus held the weight out to Alec. “Hold this.”

Alec paused, but carefully took the weight from Magnus with his free hand, almost dropping it when he felt just how heavy it was. He recovered quickly, not wanting to show Magnus any struggle. “Why?”

Magnus picked up an identical dumbbell. “Let’s have a contest. The first person to get to ten reps decides which takeout we order for dinner. I’m not going through that cooking fiasco again.”

Alec nodded. “You’re on.”

_____

It was a close contest. Magnus grinned triumphantly as he set the dumbbell down half-way through Alec’s last rep.

Alec frowned, setting his own dumbbell down a second later. “Are you sure you did ten?”

“Extremely sure,” Magnus said. “I apologise that I don’t have slow-motion playback for you to verify. You’re going to have to take my word for it, just like I’ll take your word for it that you didn’t in fact set yours down after seven.”

“You know I didn’t,” Alec replied.

“Maybe,” Magnus sang, picking up his dry flannel and looking out of the window as he dabbed away some of the sweat on his chest. Alec absent-mindedly watched, catching himself off guard as he realised a few moments later what he was doing. 

“S-so…” Alec started, trying not to stumble over his words as he looked away from Magnus’ chest. “What food are we getting?”

Magnus hummed in thought, dropping his flannel. “Maybe Indonesian. I haven’t had it for a while. It’s the food I had as a child, and since it’s too complicated for me to cook while we’re in this state” - he lifted their cuffed hands for a moment - “we might as well order it. I’d be interested to see what you think of it.”

Alec nodded slowly. “That sounds nice.”

Magnus laughed. “I think that’s the first time today you’ve described something as ‘nice’. No negativity? I may pass out from shock.”

Alec rolled his eyes. He waited for the irritation at Magnus’ sarcasm to rush through him, but it never came. On the contrary, Alec found himself suppressing a small smile. 

Before Alec could respond, Magnus began to pick up the dumbbells, piling them back into the cupboard. “Well, today’s work out is done. You’ve kept your end of the deal. And now for me to keep mine.”


End file.
